One Piece: ONI
by X-Calibur
Summary: The World is a harsh place and 3 souls must fight it to find peace, justice and live life as a great adventure. Luffy will be reunited with a lost brother. A human woman seeks to fight the injustice that happened to her as she proudly show off her Sun tattoo And one man's quest to write history as he struggles between Pirates and Marines and deciding what to make of the world.
1. Intro

**Psych evaluations for Office of Naval Intelligence agents**

**Day 1**

A man strolls into a small room with a table and 2 chairs. In his hands was a large stack of papers, personnel files. As he sat down, he looked through each file as he poured a glass of water for himself.

Some time has passed and the doctor is now seeing his first patient.

"Let us begin." He said to a young man, "I'm going to a word and you will tell me what comes up after. Just the first word that pops in your mind."

In the next session, he says the same thing and starts over.

"Nation."

"The people" A young boy replied calmly. He sat up a little bit and the sword to his side moved a bit.

"Gun"

"A tool" An older man said softly

"ONI"

"Demons" another young boy replied with interest in his voice. He had a strange top hat on the table.

"Kill"

"Necessary" Now a young woman replied

"Mariejois" the doctor named the capital of the World.

Not answering, the young woman stared off when mentioned the name.

"Mariejois" the doctor repeated

The woman looked up, and images of fire, terror and screams were in her thoughts. In her flashback, she saw a Fishman who was almost a brilliant skin color like a red sea bream fish and then remembered being a little girl turning her head to the distant away from her village when she heard gunfire. The woman recomposed herself as she replied.

"Absolute Power."

The note book closed, ending the evaluations.

**Marine HQ training hall**

In the large hall, where usually a couple hundred Marines would occupy, a man trains by himself. The sword he held in one hand was a Mameluke. It had a very dull scabbard that used to be shiny but had long since lost it luster. As the man drew the blade, the blade was in good condition with the hilt being a worn pearl color with just as dull golden color on the cross guard.

Elsewhere, a man was running down the streets, turning his head to look back every so often and ran faster when he saw something still chasing him. As he turned a corner and jumped down to the lower level, he stopped to take a breath as he held the suitcase in his hands. Just as the man felt safe, the brick wall next to him seem to be running like wet clay pouring out of it slowly and silently into the ground next to him. As the small drops of liquid continued to pool up, they started to form together and something started to emerge from it. As the man still unaware of what is behind him, he loads his gun to defend himself. The pool of clay like substance begin to change shape and looked more human. Hair started to form on the head, somewhat long and brown as the clay it came from, lips of red and piercing eyes.

"Give it up and I'll let you go." The formed woman spoke, startling the man as he turned around quickly and fired his gun at the woman's face.

But the ending wasn't what you expect. There was a dead body on the floor, but it wasn't the woman's. She was shot in the head, a gaping hole through and through but the hole was closing in on itself and the rest of her body was revealed to the light. Her back was partly shown in the light as a small glimpse of what was underneath it would interest any man but the most prominent feature was the bright tattoo of a fiery red sun that seems to cover her entire back.

As she turned a corner, her face changed into someone else as she blended into the crowd, disappearing into it almost.

Back in the training hall, the lone Marine tested his sword as he performed moves, remembering each technique and how a single stroke can end a life. The sweat on his body seemed to start moving as if something was pulling them. Water seemed to be forming on the blade of his sword from seemingly no where as he spins around, like he was gathering it from the very air around him. Then with one finishing move, he slashed twice in front of him, sending the water on his blade off and at super speeds. The results were sharp waves of water hitting the stone walls and cutting right into them. He finished up and didn't even wipe his head, for there was no more sweat on his body even. Putting his shirt back on, his uniform states he was a Colonel in rank despite his young age.

Looking to the newspaper on the table, he picked it up. The headline said **Two Years since Marineford**

"Col. MacTavish," A Marine called to him, "You have a message, sir."

The Marines in the building looked a lot different from your typical types; mostly their uniforms were not the same. Instead of the typical white shirts and blue pants, these Marines wore uniforms with a sort of dull green and khaki colors. And unlike the more widely seen Marines' white caps, these Marines were wedge caps.

MacTavish had changed into more civilian clothing complete with a jacket as he read the message, holding his sword tucked in his armpit.

"Inform the Admiral that I am ready to depart for Sabody."

Walking to a balcony, he opened the doors outside and the dry winds of the hot desert hit his face, but he walked outside nonetheless. He can hear down the hall, the cries of a baby and a woman shushing the little child. The young woman's blue hair flowed as a gentle breeze came through the window. MacTavish smiled as he stood there.

"I'll say hi to Luffy for you, my princess. The promised day is coming and I need to go." He takes his ring off and placed it on the table as he leaves. "With love, my dear."

"Be safe." The princess replied.

Meanwhile, in an alley, a group of street thugs were mugging someone. As they continued on, the loud sounds of boots stomping onto the ground caught their attention. They turned and noticed a man walking up to them, seemingly not caring who was in front. The thugs left their victim against the wall to approach the man, assuming he was some kind of hero. They tried to block his path and then the young man looked up at them, tipping his top hat to the side and smiled as something slipped through the sleeve of his long coat and when his hand caught it, it was a tomahawk.

Bodies hit the ground as the "hero" fought back against the thugs trying to swarm him. He continued to smile as he worked the small axe gracefully around, tripping one with it and another, he just smacked into the face. When it was all over, the guy twirled his tomahawk around his hand and sets it back into his coat. He picked up his top hat and placed it back on his head, dusting off the goggles on it.

"This place has turned for the worse. And these guys call themselves Marines." He said as he walked from the alley, revealing that he was in Marineford.

Standing over the place where Ace died, the young man took his hat off and bowed to pay respects to the dead.

"Luffy is going to shit himself when he seems me. Watch our backs, Ace. I'm not letting another brother die."

**Weeks later - Sabaody Archipelago**

The three had gathered at the local Marine outpost. Having noticed how much the town has turned to crap, they decided to split up.

"I'm going to pick up Luffy. The ladies will most likely have a ride for him on the way. I was the last crew to see him. It fits that I should be the first and bring him here safely."

"And what do you want us to do?" the woman asked

"Koala, I need you to go under water. Jimbei's going to want to see you."

"And what about me, Dante?" the young man tips his hat.

"Well, Sabo…you do what you do best around here. I'm sure you'll find something to occupy your time."

Sabo smiled a bit as he got up and left.

Dante looked out the window as he finished his drink.

"So much time has passed…where does it all go?"

**First story arc: **

**_Dante MacTavish – The Spy of the Straw Hats_**


	2. Chapter 1

**My name is Dante -**

**Becoming a Straw Hat**

Three Years Ago…

The sea was always unpredictable no matter how much man tries to conquer it. When traveling the high seas, there are a few things that are always certain. You'll get sea sick, you get wet, you're get shot at for sometimes no reason and the only reassuring part of all this is hopefully that's happen while you are on a boat.

Major Dante MacTavish has known the sea all his life. Career Marines always belong to the sea but he feels the moment he got his new assignment, he can't be a Marine. The reason is after his first impression of Monkey D. Luffy; he needs to be a pirate from now on…sort of. It wasn't clear to Dante if Luffy was actually a pirate or pretending to be one.

The noises from outside his cabin were loud and annoying. The Captain, a little weasel by the name of Nezumi had just gotten his ass kicked by the young rookie. If he was a regular Marine, he would have jumped in, but the circumstances were different. Also, he had snuck onto this ship to pose as part of Nezumi's crew. He had heard of corruption and rumors that Fishmen had taken over an island in this area but all official Marine reports by this guy states nothing of the sort. The very notion of a Marine taking bribes like this disgusted Dante, but he knew this was not an isolate incident. In fact being an intelligence officer, he knows a great deal more than the average Marine. It's a truth that the world needs to hear but no one will like it or don't honestly give a damn about.

His state of mind was broken when there was a sudden loud knocking on his door. He got up slowly and grabbed his pistol.

_Shit…_

"Open up right now. Drop your weapons and hands where we can see them! We know you're not one of us!" A Marine shouted.

_Oops, time to go._ It took them long enough to discover he wasn't one of their crew. He COULD just tell them and hand over credentials. Regardless of actual rank, he has greater authority than anyone on this ship, but it was best to not let that go to his head as he packed his things and opened the small window. When the Marines busted through his door, the room was vacant. There was no where to go. How could a man his size even fit into the porthole that is his window.

Outside the ship, Dante looks up as he was standing on the water itself, not even swayed by the currents or waves and then turned blue as he propelled himself across the ocean at fast speeds. It was obvious that he's a devil fruit user with a very useful power.

Captain Nezumi was pissed. He and his Marines got the ever loving crap beat by Luffy and his upstart band of so called pirates. Having issued a bounty out for Luffy's head, things are starting to roll. Dante smiled at the adventure ahead of him.

_I guess you were right, Admiral. He's going to be a handful_

After what seemed to be staring at ocean for almost forever, Dante sighed in relieve as he finally approached the island where Arlong had once reigned over for many years. Koala had told him about Arlong. It was fortunate that he didn't have to fight him…for Arlong at least. Koala also had reservations if Dante had engaged Arlong in combat but didn't tell him why.

Landing on the island, he surveys the area that used to be Arlong Park. It was a mess. The Straw Hats were a force to be reckoned with. Again, Dante just smiled, imaging the fun he's going to have.

The smile went away when he acknowledge the other person in the area who was watching him up to now.

"You know, it's not nice to sneak up on someone like that." Dante said to Zoro. "You lost or something?"

The once former pirate hunter didn't move an inch; he knew Dante was more than what he seems from the outside.

"I was just looking for a nice place to drink and…zoned out while I was walking," He didn't want to admit that he was lost. "Looks like you've already claimed this place. So who are you? You don't look like someone from town."

"I actually want to get off this island. Need to talk to your captain."

"What for?"

"Well since there are no boats left on this island and the only ship that is capable of taking me to where I want is owned by pirates, I need to ask."

"And where are you going?

Dante grin a bit.

"The Grand Line of course. I want you to take me there since you are going there after all."

Zoro narrowed his eyes. Who in their right of mine wants to willing go into the Grand Line like that? Then again, he's joined up with a seemingly crazy captain who wants to do exactly the same thing. Did he have the right to question this plan?

"Well Luffy's partying right now. You're going to need to ask him tomorrow. We've had quite the day."

"I know. The first real test of his crew. You know there's a bounty on him already? I heard it from that Marine captain you guys beat up."

"How much?"

"30 million. Generous, considering how unknown your captain is. That's 10 more than the fishman he just beat"

"An amount like that isn't going to go unnoticed. That Marine who filed it must have been one pissed asshole. Which begs the question. Why get a ride from us pirates?"

"Regular ships are always prime targets for pirates like yourselves. Getting a ride on a pirate ship and better yet, a relatively unknown group is much safer. It isn't like I can't take care of myself. I just like the…adventure. You don't seem to be a bad group of guys."

"And what makes you think that? We could be blood thirsty killers."

"If you were, then all those Fishmen should be dead. You didn't kill a single one of them, not even Arlong. Your captain Luffy has a very interesting view of the world. It's almost like he doesn't know the first thing about being a real pirate but pretends to go along for the ride."

"So in your mind, we're not pirates?"

"When was the last time you've raped and pillaged a village or boat? Are you going to rob this place when you are done partying? Then you aren't a real band of pirates. That's also why I want to ride with you guys. You interest me."

"I thought you just want a boat to take us where you want. It's almost like you've planned this encounter."

"Call it fate. So, you going to introduce yourself Mr. Bushido?"

"I'm Roronoa Zoro."

Dante pretended to be surprised when the name exchange began.

"Ah, well I'm Dante MacTavish. I'm a former Marine who is just traveling the world looking for adventure. Who knows, you sound like a fun team you have here. A cook, a compulsive liar, a cat burglar, you – the fancy swordsman and a captain who's a walking rubber band. I've got to do some selling of myself if I want to make the team. Got this speech all prepared. Should be really inspiring."

**THE NEXT DAY – On the Going Merry**

"Sure, you can sail with us!" Luffy said happily before Dante could even finish a fraction of his speech. "Man, after a couple battles, people are just lining up to join my crew!"

It didn't take much convincing after all, even though it was moot point. They had already set sail from the island. Seriously, what was Dante going to do if he said no? Or does Luffy just forget that they just set sail before he remembers something important?

"Seriously?" Usopp shouted from the background. "Aw come on. We don't even know this guy."

"He doesn't look like a bad guy." Luffy replied with his usual smile. "We've got room onboard. The more the merrier! That's like the name of this ship, right?"

Nami stepped up a bit. Of course she'd be the most suspicious of all.

"I'm actually with Usopp. This guy shows up and asks to join us."

"Well, technically I am asking you to take me through the Grand Line. Joining you guys is subjective to if I have a great time."

"That sounds a little bit too shady. No sane man from the East Blue would want to up and decide to go to the Grand Line. What are you hiding?" Nami leaned very closer to Dante. All Dante had to do was look down with his eyes and behold.

"More than what you are barely hiding apparently, little lady." Nami's outfit was pink this time. She had changed out of her other clothes to wash and decided to put something else on. Her shirt had a mid drift and she wore an extremely short skirt that was also pink.

Nami looked down for just a split second and she was pissed, blushing and then red face with anger. As if this was the first time some one's ever talked about her body. Though Sanji had already made multiple attempts to woo her, no one has really ever been his blunt to her face. It was kinda refreshing to hear what a man is honestly thinking about her, but then she realized that he was talking about her breasts.

"Why YOU FUCKING PIG!" Nami immediately jumped up for a drop kick at Dante's face.

"I'll pay you all 100,000 Berries as tribute, since I am joining this crew and all." Dante held a bag of money he seemed to have pulled out of no where, which caused Nami to instantly change direction, taking the money and started counting it as she walked away all giddy like.

"Welcome to the Going Merry! You're going to fit in well here!" the cat thief said as her eyes became money signs.

Sanji didn't seem to care much as he follows Nami.

"As long as Nami is fine with it, I am as well. I'm the cook, Sanji. Need a snack? Well, don't ask for one."

"She's such a money whore…" Usopp muttered as he walked towards Dante, "So, what can you do? What's your trade?"

"I've sailed on Marine ships before so I know how to operate a boat very well. I can very reliable in a fight. I'm also a cracked shot."

"What a coincidence! I'm the sniper! You can call me Captain Usopp! I'm also quite the tinker of things."

Dante tilt his head a bit as he sized up the afro man with the long nose. He wondered if he was related to a wooden puppet. Looking at the man, he saw no gun to his side or rifle on his back. Are they in his room? Well, Usopp didn't seem like the fist fighter type with his skinny arms and legs. Ok, so maybe he's good with a firearm. Don't need much strength to pull a trigger.

"So…what's your weapon of choice?"

Usopp proudly displays his custom slingshot, pulling the stretchy band back a few times like he's cocking a gun.

"Nice isn't it. I've designed it myself! I call it **Ginga Pachinko**…it means Galaxy Slingshot."

Dante almost chuckled a bit.

"You expect to kill someone with that?"

"Well I don't know if I ever want to kill someone, but don't be deceived by its childish nature. I've just colored it green. It used to be brown!"

"And changing the colors do…what?"

"Well…I don't know. I just wanted to do a different color I guess."

"What you need is one of these." Dante sweep his jacket away to reveal that he had a gun to his side. He drew the pistol and gave it a twirl. "This is the new Samuel Action Marine Revolver; model Lucky 7 because you can shoot 7 times before needing to reload. This thing will blow a big hole in you. A little bit more effective than your little sling shot."

Usopp seems to be taken aback from how new looking Dante's revolver is. He's never seen this design before. A rotating multi chamber handgun that can shoot many shots as fast as the finger can pull the trigger and it even uses cone shaped bullets in metal cartridges. No longer needing to fumble with powder and ball.

"That's uh…really shiny, but…guns aren't really my thing though."

"Whatever, I'm going to put my stuff away." Dante explored the entire ship and chuckled at the size of the ship. "Cozy little ship."

When putting his sword down, Dante stood up again, sensing Zoro was behind him.

"Didn't I tell you, it isn't nice to sneak up on someone?"

"It's a habit of mine. Not really sneaking if the guy notices." Zoro then looked over at the sword, "From when you were a Marine?"

Dante knew it was obvious that a swordsman would be interested in the blades of others, so he tossed his weapon at Zoro. The blade came out smoothly. The master swordsman examined the weapon closely.

"Good quality blade. Looks like you maintain it well."

"It's just an average sword. Nothing special. Not like that special thing you have at your side." He commented on Zoro's sword. He had lost the 2 others previously but they were just generic pick ups. The one he's always carried. The white hilt of it. Even without seeing the whole blade, Dante can tell it was a great sword. Dante is just being modest, just like Zoro is with his.

"This thing?" Zoro touched his sword, "It only has sentimental value."

"Well if you need a sparring partner, I'm your man. That sword isn't for show."

"I can see that. There are a lot of tiny chips on the blade."

"You seem to be the only one who's giving me an actual welcome. The others seem to be a bit more passive."

"They'll start bothering you eventually. Just keep your stuff stowed away. Welcome aboard, Dante."

After Zoro left, Dante sat down to look at his journal. His personal log book had a special looking keyhole that only he can open. He stuck his finger through the keyhole and it instantly turned blue like water and then felt solid as he opened the book.

He was staying in the room where all the other guys were sleeping. It was not a small room by no means, but with 5 guys staying in a room like this, it is lacking in privacy. He made sure no one was in the room when he made his report.

_Report as follows: Have infiltrated the relatively unknown "pirate crew", the Straw Hats. I will keep a watch out for Luffy as per my orders. First impressions of Monkey D. Luffy…he's an interesting young man. Very spirited. Kinda reminds me of someone. The crew is a very interesting cast from all walks of life. Why they seem to follow "Captain" Luffy into the great unknown, is beyond me at the moment. Maybe as I travel with them, I'll find out if this is the Will of D guiding me as I make my mark on the world._

**OP - BravBlue by FLOW **

ED - Memories By Maki Otsuki 


	3. Chapter 2

**Water Water Everywhere**

**The Power of the Seas**

The Merry Go was a relatively small ship for 6 people to share. It wasn't a warship by any stretch of the word, but it was tough. That's what Dante had come to realize after spending a few days aboard. There was a sense of home here. This IS going to be his home.

The feeling of being on this ship of the Straw Hats felt more like something more relaxed than being in the Marines. There are no military regs onboard but even though it's technically a pirate ship, there's no order at all either. No one's cleaning the deck because they were ordered to or manning positions because it is their job, though Nami seems to boss everyone around. Luffy has a much laid back personality, which Dante is constantly questioning on why he is the captain of the ship. Half the time, Dante thought Zoro is the captain because he gives off the feel of someone in charge, then he heard from Usopp that this ship was given to them by a girlfriend of his, or at least Usopp didn't say she was his girlfriend, but it was obviously to Dante how he feels.

Since he is now part of the crew, Dante did a check on everything to make sure they are prepared for anything. The first thing is weapon. It was piss poor. One cannon permanently pointed forward and one extra gun on the deck that can be moved around. It was interesting that the ship has somewhat of an armory, so there's an assortment of small arms if the crew was to pick, but it didn't seem like anyone of the crew even uses guns. Especially the man who calls himself a "sniper". When the shit hits the fan, he'll be the only one shooting a gun back at someone, but at least he can rely on Usopp to man the cannons.

Looking ahead, Dante can see the island of the beginning and the end, Logue Town, coming into view. The former Marine cried out to everyone, one was sleeping, the others about their businesses. This was their first step into adventure. He didn't want them to miss it.

"Land ho everyone. All hands on deck! We're approaching Logue Town."

Luffy jumped out with an excited look on him.

"That's it right? Gold Roger was born and executed there. Everything began here." The stretchy captain held onto his hat as he jumped onto the Merry's head.

The other crew members were all excited as they prepared for landfall. Dante continued to look ahead as he was already thinking of the potential problems they are going to bump into. He wondered if Smoker was still in charge.

The moment the crew docked, Luffy had jumped off the boat to see the execution platform without even hearing where they are going to meet up next.

"Well, we'll just meet back at the ship by day's end." Nami said "Everyone ok with that?"

"Makes sense," Sanji added as he looked through his grocery list, "When Luffy's done with whatever, he'll just come back to his ship."

"Let's just hope he doesn't cause any trouble, but one can only be hopeful." Zoro rolled his eyes thinking about his troublemaking captain.

As the group went about their business, Dante looked up at the sky and covered his head with a hat.

"Wealth, fame, and power. Gold Roger obtained all of this. Destiny, faith, dreams. The man said as long as people seek freedom in this life, those things will never disappear. He was more than a pirate. Hey, wait, guy!"

As Dante was going on with his little moment, the crew had already took off without him.

"I was trying to be dramatic!"

"No one gives a shit!" Nami shouted back.

"Little bitch," Dante muttered as he followed along. "Only reason anyone listens to you is because of that ass."

The group then split up. Sanji went to get food, Usopp want to get some tools along with "supplies", Zoro went to get new swords since 3 sword style doesn't really work with one sword and Nami went to do what seems to be her running joke when they are docked, clothes. Why Dante decided to follow her than the others is simple. She's cute despite her disposition.

"So where do you want to go first?" Dante asked. He has nothing else better to do. Though in hindsight, it would have been better to follow the guy whom he first met and seems to be the more relatable to him. The hell was he supposed to talk with the girl of the group who doesn't seem to like fighting, not a weapons expert and nothing in common with him.

"I'm thinking clothes. Some nice looking kinds."

The idea of watching a girl pick her clothes didn't seem to appeal to him at first…but then his mind changed when he realized what kind of clothes Nami likes to wear all the time and none of them are modest to say the least.

She started off with skimpy skirts and tank tops, then moved up to slinky dresses and finally bikinis and other swim suits. All of these were kinda pricey. Watching her come out and rating her choices were so far the best of his day. It was the only time he can stare a hole into her without offense since she wanted him to stare at her.

"How's this one?" she asked as she came walking out with another less than modest outfit.

"You look very pretty Nami." Trying to keep up without seeming bored after the 20th outfit. Then suddenly they were walking out and he realized he just emptied his wallet.

_**God damn it, she made me pay for it again. It's that ass. It's distracting.**_

"Nami, you go ahead. I'm going to get myself some more money."

"How are you going to get more money?"

"Simple. I'm going to look for a little machine and put a card with my name into it and withdraw some like a kind of automated teller device..."

Dante stared at her for a minute before she realizes he was joking about a small wonder machine where one can access their money from the bank from anywhere.

"Whatever, where do you want to meet up?"

"If we don't bump into each other by the end of the day, let's meet back at the ship, ok beautiful?"

Nami walked off waving and then Dante realized that he's holding all of the stuff she just bought and sighed a bit. He could be an ass and just drop it. They aren't his clothes, but then he realized that he paid for them and the store has a no return policy. He sucked it up and walked all the way back to the ship.

After getting back to the ship, he changed his face so he would look different. He added a beard to his face along with sunglasses and a hat. When he walked out of the ship, he was heading straight into the local Marine base. He present credentials and walked right in like none the wiser. In the office he picked up some more money and walked right back out before slipping down an alley and changed his face back. He thanked god that he didn't bump into Smoker. He didn't feel like explaining to the "gas man" what he was doing on his island.

Just then, he heard a sound a scream that was definitely Luffy. He looked up and saw him flying away. He continued to look at the empty sky, bewildered and wondered if it was something Sanji put in his drink. He thought about what to say about the sight he just saw. Can Luffy fly?

"He can do that?"

Climbing up building, he reached the roof and looked around to see where Luffy could have landed and figured that he landed where the dust cloud would be. Hopping along buildings, he skipped over and landed next to Luffy.

"The hell happen to you, cap'n?"

"I flew. It was nice." Luffy said all matter of fact about it.

"What happened?"

"Tried to get on top of the execution platform."

"And then you somehow ended up over heard? This is the edge of town. The execution platform is in the center of town."

"Yup…"

"Need any help?"

"Nope. I think I'm just going to take a nap."

"In the middle of this park?"

"Yup."

Looking around, Dante started to wonder about this man's mentality. Shaking his head, he looked down on Luffy.

"You going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine. Just go without me. Oh, tell Sanji to get me some meat."

It was a bit puzzling that Luffy just wants Dante to leave him sleeping out in the open, but who was he to argue with his captain?

"Alrighty then, I'm going to look for the others."

Dante was wondering if Luffy was just joking around, but before he turned the corner, he looked back to see that his stretchy captain was still sleeping.

"Is he for real?" shaking his head a bit, Dante continued onward to look for the others.

Passing by a gun store, Dante decided to indulge himself. It had some new weapons for him to look at, but mostly the same on single shot muzzle loaders. There were however some new stuff that the military hasn't even adopted yet. Thing about the military is that once they have something good going for them, they rarely change unless it's something extremely significant. This gives those who are smart an advantage. As fast as he knows, no one is using the newly made revolvers. All armies are still using swords alongside long rifles.

He did however bought a couple new knives, placing them in special sheathes behind him for each reach.

"Thank you," he paid the shop keep and walked back out as he smelled food being cooked. "Too bad Nami isn't with me. Would be perfect for a date."

Strolling to the harbor, he noticed a cook off and can clearly see Sanji was participating. The prize was apparently a very large fish. Nami and Usopp were already there, cheering for their cook. Dante quickly joined in.

"That's a lot of fish. Could feed us for a week." Usopp commented on how big the elephant blue looks. It's gotta be at least 30 pounds of fish.

"Or half a sec if Luffy gets his hands on it." Nami commented off hand.

"No kidding. We need to invent new techniques just to protect our plates. Leave them alone long enough and he'll eat our forks."

Watching Sanji work his magic, the air was filled with the smells of good food. Too bad none of them were going to get any of it. In the end, Sanji won and Usopp was left carrying everything, including whatever Nami had bought, which looked like more clothes.

"That was a nice haul today." Usopp managed to say as he carried the huge fish around.

"You did good there, Sanji. Better cook us that fish later." Dante added, before he looked up a bit. It was a clear sky with a nice cool breeze but suddenly, it started getting cloudy.

"I'm thinking of how I should cook it. Don't know if I should stir fry it or broil it. Maybe steam it with some vegetables."

Just then, there were multiple gun shots from the distance. The group turned and their first though went to Luffy. It wasn't helping that the partly cloudy day was getting worse. The wind started to pick up.

"Sounds like it's coming from the center of town." Dante said, he had his hand on his pistol instinctually as he looked on. "Where Luffy said he was going…crap."

Sanji turned to Dante. They are without Zoro, so it was up to them.

"Let's go. We'll see if it's Luffy. Usopp, take Nami back to the ship." Sanji dumped the rest of his stuff on Usopp. "And don't drop that fish, Usopp! Come on, new guy."

The pair took off, leaving Usopp and Nami walking back to the ship, which Nami then picked up pace.

"Hey, Nami! A little help here!" Usopp was struggling with the load he was carrying. "I'm not a beast of burden."

"We need to go, Usopp. The weather's suddenly changing. There's a storm coming." She looked worried as she changed into a sprint for their ship, leaving Usopp even more of a struggle to keep up.

"Ah come on, Nami!"

As those two ran, Dante and Sanji had reached the center of town where the execution platform is. They also had bumped into Zoro.

"Oh, there you guys are."

"Lost again, moss head?"

"Go fuck yourself cook."

Dante walked closer to the crowd and noticed what they were looking at.

"Guys…we got a problem. That's Luffy over there."

Before the cook and the swordsman stopped their fighting, a loud voice shouted from the execution platform. A clown dressed like a pirate…or a pirate dressed like a clown?

"So who's the clown?" Dante asked, a bit confused.

Sanji stepped up to explain.

"I think that's Buggy. A pirate that Luffy pissed off a while ago. Nami told me something about that. Back when she first met Luffy, this pirate with an ugly red nose took over a town and tried to kill them. Naturally, it was Nami's beauty and ingenuity that got them out of the mess Anyway, he seems to have it in for Luffy. Tough."

_**Am I supposed to believe that?**_

"You've got to be kidding me. Luffy's arch nemesis is a fucking clown? That's not dignifying at all for a pirate."

"Forget dignity! He's got Luffy down and a sword to his neck!" Zoro drew his new swords, and prepared for battle. "He's gonna kill him!"

"Bust right through guys. Let's go save our captain." Dante drew his gun and fired a shot into the crowd of Buggy pirates but it wasn't enough as Buggy readied his sword to chop Luffy's head

Dante tried to get closer, but there were so many pirates in his path, he had to start shooting. By now, the Marines had joined in and now it's a 3 way fight with the Straw Hats deep in the middle of all of it.

"HEY GUYS!" This got everyone's attention, stopping them in their tracks "I'm dead."

It wasn't what he said that got his attention, but his expression. He was at peace with what happens even if it means death. Dante wasn't going to let that happen as he took aim at Buggy. A single shot to the head from a couple hundred yards would be hard, but not impossible for him. For a split second he wondered should he use his powers now. Then suddenly a bolt of lightning came from the clouds above and struck the platform, taking out both of them.

"Luffy!" Zoro shouted as he fends off another Buggy pirate.

Dante stared at where the platform used to stand and shook his head, and then he came to a horrible realization.

"Oh my god…the Old Man's gonna fucking kill me." He reloaded his gun. He walked closer to the smoldering wreckage of the platform and then a hand sticking out of the pile. It was Luffy. "Damn…what does it take to kill this guys?"

Luffy was alive and apparently unharmed by such a thing like a bolt of lightning. Buggy the clown however didn't fare as well. Dante can see the red nose pirate almost reduced to a cartoonish black ash pile.

Zoro and Sanji caught up, but they were still surrounded by pirates.

"Looks like it turned out well but I think we've over stayed our welcome on this island."

"Moss head's right. We've gotta go."

Dante holstered his gun.

"Alright, everyone, back to the ship! We've gotta fight through these circus rejects."

Zoro and Sanji took off ahead to deal with the crowd of angry clown pirates as Dante helped Luffy up.

"Alright o fearless Captain. Let's get out of here."

"Hey, I'm alive! How about that?"

"How about you get your lazy ass up and get going. We've got ship to catch."

"Oops. Alright, let's go!" Luffy took off in a sprint, leaving Dante behind. He turned around and noticed the bunch of Buggy pirate tailing them.

"You guys aren't going anywhere." He cracked his knuckles as he gets ready for a fight.

Luffy kept on running but he didn't get far as Smoker stopped him, smacking him in the face with a clothes line attack, sending Luffy straight to the ground. He began stomping him.

"I told you already, Straw Hat! To get to the Grand Line, you need to get through me and I don't make it easy!"

Luffy got up, but Smoker was just getting started.

He started giving Luffy a smack down despite Luffy's efforts to fight back. He wasn't getting any punches through.

"This is not even funny. I'm not even using my devil fruit powers. You can't be worth 30 million!"

Captain stretch did his best to punch at Smoker, and when it seemed like he scored a hit on the face, his fist just went straight through. Additional punches didn't do much either.

"Nice try, kid. But my power of smoke makes me untouchable from attacks. You can swing at me all day, shoot me, throw rocks at me and it'll just go straight through."

Luffy didn't care and kept on trying. Smoker tightens his grip.

Luffy felt his as if his strength was getting sapped by Smoker's grasp. His devil fruit form was powerful smokes that can change consistency so he can becomes solid and grab things while becoming plain smoke to become impervious to all forms of physical attack. Even with the rain coming down on them, Smoker's smoke wasn't getting washed away no matter how strong it was coming down.

"Forget capture, maybe I should just end your misery right now and save the paper work." Smoker closed his grip, seemingly choking Luffy though, being a rubber man, his neck will just compress. "Say good night, Straw Hat."

Continuing to struggle, Luffy kept on throwing punches all the while talking with a higher pitched voice because of his squeezed throat.

"Let me go, smokey!" Almost sounding like a duck.

Just then, the water around them started to flow in a different direction than they should be. It wasn't the wind nor was it the rain letting up. Several drops of water actually hit Smoker instead of going through him. This caused him to be of concern but suddenly all the water that was raining down gathered around a hand, forming a blade and it came down on Smoker, destroying his grip over Luffy. In utter shock that someone was able to actually break his smoke grip, he turned to his left to see, but only to be blind sided by an incredible spray of water, knocking him down.

"Luffy!" Dante shouted as water spun around him. He was commanding the water around him into a tower of water. "Grab on!"

"Grab onto what? Whoa!" Luffy didn't get to finish his question as the tower of water turned into a Tsunami that washed them down the street, picking up speed as Dante drew more water from the rain. "Dante?! How are you doing this?"

"Sorry to steal your thunder, Smokes but we've gotta ride!" Dante shouted at Smoker as they were already far away around the next corner.

Smoker got up and all of a sudden, he couldn't get the shock look on his face.

"No…fucking…way." He came to a realization who just saved Luffy, "God damn it!"

From a different perspective, the smoke coming out of Smoker looked more like angry steam suddenly as he stretched out his hand to attack but then someone grabbed it.

"Not so fast, young man." Smoker turned to a cloaked man hover over him almost.

"What is someone like you doing here…Dragon?"

Dragon, the great Revolutionary, let's go of Smoker and turned to watch Luffy getting washed back to the docks by Dante's powers.

_**You've gotten yourself quite some interesting friends, son…**_

A rushing river of water flowed down the streets, cutting around corners with a will of its own. On top of the raging water sat a perfectly still Dante, sitting Luffy down behind him.

"That was close, Luffy. A second later and Smoker would have put your lights out."

Luffy jumped up from his wet seat and onto his feet, standing on water. He was walking on water.

"Forget that! How are you doing this?! This is freaking cool!"

"This is my devil fruit power. The Water Water fruit. I am the master of water in all its forms. Everything of water is in my powers. The very sea itself listens to my command…well most of the time...some times. Actually I have a problem with the ocean when there's a storm. Hard to focus when the waves come at you all over the place."

Luffy was geeking out from the sight of Dante's power.

"Cool! Cool! Cool! We don't have to worry about fresh water when we are thirsty!"

"I'm not a damn drinking fountain!"

Back at the ship, everyone else was waiting for Luffy.

"Damn it, where are they?!" Nami shouted as she looks through binoculars, scanning the harbor. "We have a problem here! The Marines are coming!"

Just then, Dante's wave washed onto the docks with Luffy down on the ground. The others were waiting.

"Where did you two come from?!" Sanji tossed his bag full of supplies over his shoulder.

"The ship's all the way out there now." Zoro shouted as he walks toward a row boat. "We can use this!"

"Too slow! Luffy, do like Usopp's sling shot! I'll meet you all over there."

"Good idea!" Luffy grabbed two poles and ran back so he can work himself like a slingshot.

"Wait, wait, what does he mean like his slingshot?" Zoro then came to realize Luffy was the sling shot and THEY WERE THE AMMO, "Wait Luffy! No, no, no, noooo!"

Luffy sent himself, Zoro and Sanji across the water and crashing onto the ship. Thankfully, Usopp got out of the way but the two had made indentions on the hull of the ship.

Dante jumped into the water, but before his feet could sink any deeper, he caused the water to gather behind him and create a jet stream to burst him towards the ship.

Usopp got up when Dante lands on the ship. He was absolutely surprised at Dante's ability to use water."

"Holy shit, you can do that?" He put his goggles back on,

"I'll explain later. Right now we've got a problem."

"What problem?"

"That."

Dante points at the massive storm they were about to head into. The rain was getting worse and the waves rougher.

"Everyone calm down!" Nami shouted, "We need to get through the storm. Usopp, man the rudder. Zoro, Luffy, check the sail! Dante, secure our stuff!"

"Right!" The guys shouted as they all went to work. The group is usually a very loose bunch of misfits who have nothing in common and never work well but when it comes down to being a crew of a ship, everything just come together.

As the Going Merry left the port city of Logue Town, Smoker watches from the docks. Anger doesn't really describe what he's feeling as he storms back to the Marine base.

"I am issuing a warrant for the arrest of this man!" He slams a picture of Dante on the table, "Send request and get conformation from HQ. I want this man dead than alive."

"Um, captain, isn't that OR alive?"

Smoker waited for the message to get through and started talking to himself.

"That punk…he drops off the grid for a couple months and now he's working with pirates. He's got another thing coming."

The snail printed off a new message for Smoker to read. The Marine manning the comms turned to the captain, confused.

"Um, sir. I just got a rejected message. Apparently HQ is saying this guy doesn't exist."

"What?"

"Or more precisely, the message says that you are to forget bumping into the guy and ignore his activities."

"Who…who sent this message?"

"Um, this came from the office of Vice Admiral Garp. I've tried to request confirmation, but I've got no response."

"The hell does this mean?"

Smoker looked outside and crumpled up the message. Meeting Luffy already was enough to piss him off, but apparently he knows Dante and he pisses him off more than Luffy.

"Set sail. Get the ship ready. We're going to the Grand Line after those pirates."

His fellow Marines were confused. They were in charge of protecting this island and now their commanding officer wants them to pack up and leave after pirates?

"Our reputation is at stake here for letting the Straw Hats get away. This will not stand. Ask HQ for replacements for us. We are leaving."

Back on the Going Merry, they had passed the storm that seemingly came out of no where and was on their way to the enormous mountain that makes up the Red Line. It was a mountain range so massive that it can be seen miles away.

"Feast your eyes everyone. The Red Line." Dante sat down after tying up all the cargo. "It's big, it's red…it's a line of mountains."

Luffy pushed pass Dante as he was in awe of the sight.

"Ah look! It's so cool! How are we going to go over it?"

Nami takes another look at her map and points ahead.

"There should be a river that seems to go up the mountain." She said "Though according to the map, the river seems to tell us to go literally UP the mountain."

Usopp shook his head a bit.

"Oh come on, that's not possible. Rivers going up a mountain. That's stupid." The he turned around and looked at the large river ahead and it was going up the mountain against gravity.

Luffy just laughed as the ship moved closer to the Red Line.

"Alright everyone. Grand Line, here we come!"

Dante went below afterwards to write his report.

**Looks like I've taken the first step into becoming a pirate. I've attacked fellow Marines and aided pirates in escaping. Usually actions like this, if caught, would lead to arrest, court martial and severe punishment. For a Marine to turn into a pirate is unforgivable. There's a standing order to be shot on sight, but something tells me, I'm not going to feel the heat for this but Smoker's going to be pissed. Haven't seen him in a while. Hope he's not too pissed at me. End of today's report.**

**Office of Naval Intelligence **

**Agent MacTavish **

"Hey Dante!" Nami shouted from outside. "We're doing a little ritual to officially start our journey. Come out here!"

Dante closed his log book and stepped outside. The crew were standing around a barrel with their feet on it.

"Join in Dante. What is your goal? We've already said ours."

Dante was more impressed that they were all able to stand up with one leg on a barrel while the waves are still crashing around them. He had to think about it hard. The original reason why he started this journey has changed a bit. As time passed, he can see this crew was something else and his own goal needs to have real meaning.

He lifted his leg and planted it on the barrel.

"I'm just here for the adventure of a lifetime. Not going to waste the opportunity."

Everyone smiled and raise their legs higher and smashed the barrel into pieces. Well it was mostly the guys who had the leg strength to do so.

Dante looked ahead as he did when he first go on the ship. This is going to be an adventure. Something he actually wanted.


	4. Chapter 3

_**Whale of a Tale**_

_**Trouble on the Line**_

The Going Merry had reached the other side of the great red line mountain range. The Straw Hats' adventure has begun…after they deal with the current problem. Apparently there is a large whale on the other side, blocking the only path down the river. In an attempt to stop their ship from crashing into it, Luffy punched the whale in the eye, thus disturbing its train of though and now the entire ship got swallowed.

_**Hell of a way to start the great adventure.**_

That's what Dante remembered when he woke up on the rocky shores next to the light house. Getting up, he tried to remember how he got there. Everything was all a blur to him and felt like he just drowned and came back.

_**Where…I was on the ship…and then…**_

He pieced together his thoughts and remembered gazing down at the ocean from the ship. They were nearly down the mountain and this was before they saw the large whale in front of them. He was looking down at the water, mostly because it was cool and he heard a sound coming from the water. No one else seemed to hear it. Suddenly he heard the very ocean calling out his name. Then his body had dissolved into the water but oddly enough, his form didn't sink into it. He couldn't remember if being this deep in the water had a draining effect on his body because of his devil fruit powers, but since he's water, he's always wonder but wasn't brave or stupid enough to try.

The others were so busy worrying about the damn whale that they forgot about Dante, who was floating on top of the ocean, dazed and had since reformed his body. He now stares at the sky on the rocky coast line.

"I was…" he spoke out loud at no one.

_**Who are you?**_ The voice in the water asked him. He couldn't answer. He didn't understand.

Snapping out of it, he got up and looked around. He fell off the ship and no one realizes that he was missing.

"Ah damn it. The ship! Whale!"

"Give them back!" a familiar voice shouted from the distant. "You hear me! Give them back you big fish!"

Dante walked to the edge of the coast and saw Luffy bouncing around on top of the extremely large whale. He thought about jumping over there to help, but he wondered would his powers even work on something so massive. Odds are, Luffy is making it worse.

"Spit them out! My crew isn't food for you!"

_**Food?**_ That's what Dante thought and it took him a second to realize that the whale had swallowed their ship, crew and all. He didn't dream that.

"Ah fuck…what the?" Dante saw Luffy opened what looked like…a door? And leapt inside the whale "The hell was that?"

It was obvious this wasn't an ordinary whale. Then the whale went back into the ocean. Dante was now all alone now. Not that it bothered him. Short mission if this was the end of the Straw Hats.

"Ah…this sucks." He sat down on the rocks and stared at the ocean, and then he felt a tremor, knocking him on his ass. "Ow…What the fuck now?"

It felt like an earthquake but then it stopped and he heard a great howling, like a whale screaming in agony. Pondering, Dante got back up, thinking the next course of action. He didn't want to just jump into the whale. He could try killing it but again…he has no idea if his powers can even scratch it and his revolver is a pee shooter compared to a great whale.

"Hmmm….what to do, what to do?" He turned and headed for the lighthouse. Upon entering, he looked around. "I know it's rude but I need information. Sorry for poking around."

He started looking over the note books and logs around the place. The man living here was alone and like many people who have decided to live apart from the world, they always like the write about their history and keep journals and diaries. The story is practically telling itself for him.

"So the name of the man running his light house is Crocus…Wait, Crocus? The doctor on Gold Roger's ship! He lives here?! Holy shit…so where is he now?"

He continued to read on about the story of Laboon the great whale, and how he was a friend of the Rumbar pirates that came here 50 years ago. One of the officers was a man named Brook who was almost a conductor of a symphony as the entire crew would play music all the time and he would be the one leading them. When the pirate crew left Laboon, they promised to come back, but didn't. According to the log book, Crocus joined Gold Roger's pirates to search for them for several years and had heard a rumor that the Rumbar pirates had tried to leave the Grand Line through the Calm Belt. Despite telling the great whale this, it didn't stop Laboon from crying out and slamming his head into the mountain range for the passed 30 years.

Sitting down, Dante read most of the books around and by the time he was done, he picked up the log pose that Crocus had used. Setting it back down, he walked outside and looked around. Armed with the knowledge of a former Roger pirate, he felt more prepared for the Grand Line than ever…if they pick the same route Roger's pirates took over 20 years ago. The information in Crocus's notes are helpful about the Grand Line, but it charts the routes they took and there are at least 7 different routes a ship can take while island hopping.

"So…if Crocus is in the whale, they should be coming out soon. Even the doctor of the Roger pirates is a badass."

After about another hour of waiting, the whale burst out of the sea.

"There he is." The Going Merry came out from…a door on the side of the whale?! "This is just weird. That old man must have been bored as hell. That's just twisted."

After a bit of story telling on the old man's part, the crew was up to speed on Laboon and they had also picked up a couple new "passengers".

"You sure about this, Luffy?" Usopp asked "These two are obvious bad people. We can't trust them. They tried to kill the whale."

"They need a ride. We keep picking people up, like we picked up Dante."

"He's different!"

Dante walked up to the two: Miss Wednesday and Mr 9.

"Well hello there. Have we met?" He leaned close to Miss Wednesday.

The blue haired girl took a step back to get some more personal space.

"I don't think so, mister pirate."

"Oh, I think we have met, Ms Wednesday…if that's really your name." He smiled a bit. He then waved them off as they crew got back onto the ship. Luffy waved at Laboon. Those two seemed to have become friends really fast with the promise of returning, the whale seemed more cheery. Though Dante wasn't so sure about their Straw Hat jolly roger being painted on the whale. Usopp should have done it.

Almost immediately after they had left the entrance to the Red Line, the ship had sailed through storms of snow and then severe rain. It was a big adjustment to get used to the weather. It was as Crocus said, very unpredictable, but the crew immediately got used to it, working fast and adapting. Usually they have a problem working together, but in a pinch, they are a team. Despite her personality, Dante had come to see that Nami is really the glue that holds the crew together. Luffy's almost naïve optimism seem to rub off on the crew.

Back at the light house, Crocus poured a cold mug of beer for the occasion. Laboon had stopped ramming his head against the mountain range and had docked himself on the rocky shores.

"Is this man going to be your successor, Roger? The kid's got potential. I salute him." He remembers his time among the Roger pirates and the very same straw hat that the once pirate king had worn that is now on Luffy's head. The old man smiled and toasted to the new generation to succeed his own.

As they almost reached their first island, Dante continued to stare at Ms Wednesday. It wasn't suspecting her of anything. Occasionally, Ms Wednesday would turn her head and look back at him. He had avoided talking to her as they sailed to their first island. Once there, their two guests had jumped ship without much fanfare. They had waited until the ship was closer to land and left without a sound.

It took Dante one look at the "cacti" mountains to tell him enough about what they were about to walk into and it wasn't going to be pretty.

Knowing what island could potentially be, Dante had warned them to move on, but Luffy didn't really listen as they were greeted by a crowd of welcome and party. Not listening to a word he was saying, Dante resigned to their stupidity as they sang, dance, and drank the night away. He went along with the drinking, occasionally glancing at Zoro and Nami with a smile as he started partying with the rest.

Once drunk, the town revealed who they really are. They wanted everything the Straw Hats had on them.

Dante had stumbled out the party room, trying to keep himself from falling down. A couple of the townspeople spotted him walking into an alley and decided to confront him.

"Hey you! Get back inside. You'll hurt yourself."

Dante turned, trying to keep himself from throwing up. He smiled a bit and continued to swig down another bottle.

"I just…I just need to find the potty. Do you guys know where it is?" He tried to say, but it was all slurred.

The two townspeople looked at each other and chuckled. This should be easy as they grabbed Dante's arm.

"Come on, big guy. It's over here."

Dante didn't budge from his spot as he the guy pulling on him made him drop his bottle. It started to roll a bit, emptying its content.

"Oh look, you made me drop my drink. How are you going to make up for that?"

"We'll get you another one. Let's go."

"You guys look thirsty too. Maybe I can get you guys something nice and cold."

As Dante leaned on one of them, he grabbed the other on the shoulder and suddenly he wasn't so drunk. He pulled and slammed the man's head into his kneel, the sound of a skull cracking could be heard around the corner. The other guy, who had Dante's arm was too late to realize that the man wasn't as drunk as he thought when Dante took his free arm and punched the man's face but instead of smacking the guy, it exploded into water and wrapped around the man's neck. With one pull, he snapped it and threw the body into the ground.

With the two down, Dante picked up his bottle and finished what was left.

"Damn good wine." Then tossing the bottle.

He waited around the corner as more townspeople gathered. Fortunately for the little band of pirates, some of the others weren't as easily fool by the nice village act. Zoro being the first to call them out. Dante wanted to surprise them, but Zoro just had to climb to the top of the building to make an entrance.

"The bounty hunter group, Baroque Works. The cheesy code name, unwavering doctrine to finish a contract at even the risk of their own lives. It wasn't hard to see through you guys." Zoro shouted from atop the building. "Did you really think you've got us fooled? Well technically some of us weren't fooled. Our captain is a bit gullible though. Tempt him with tasty food and he's done."

Nami had woken up as well and started sneaking around to steal goods. She had pretended to be drunk on all the wine just like Dante.

Dante had walked out of the shadows to join in. He had been busy roaming around, keeping nosy bandits from sneaking aboard the ship but when he heard Zoro make his entrance speech, he just had to join in. Before he joined Zoro, he was pumping some of the locals for info. He's a one man water torture. It wasn't hard to get information.

Looking up at Zoro, Dante cracked his knuckles with a smile, then called him out.

"Need to work off all that food, Zoro?" Dante asked the swordsman. "Hope the wine hasn't gotten to your head."

"Get real, a true swordsman never lets his guard down. You ready for a work out too?"

Dante raised his hands and swirls of water emerged from them like mini cyclones of blades made of water. He's got a very evil smile on him. So many soon to be victims of their fury just waiting for them. They were both excited to cut loose for once especially without Luffy watching.

"There are about a hundred of them. That means 50 a piece. Keep up Mr. Bushido."

"You don't need to tell me that." Zoro let out a smile of excitement. His two new swords were drawn and thirsty for blood.

"Kill them!" Igaram shouted, but Zoro had disappeared first and into the fray alongside Dante.

"Igarappa!" Dante turned to the sound and then a horn blow from the man with the saxophone, which shot multiple bullets at him. It didn't matter since all he needed to do was stand still and let the rounds fly right through his water body, hitting BW members behind him.

"You're gonna need something bigger than that to hurt me." Dante sent a whip of water into the large man. "Your name was a dead giveaway. It wouldn't take a group this to figure out who you are. I'm surprised they haven't figured it out already."

Zoro was taking the rest to town as his swords danced the night away. Dante didn't even need to step in to help. In fact, he was standing still this whole time, knocking down anyone coming at him, not even moving an inch. When he got bored of that, he jumped around.

In almost no time at all, the two made quick work of Baroque Works. All that was left is Mr. 9, Ms Wednesday, and Igaram. With Dante towering over them, he needed some answers.

"So you mind telling me something. Why are you and Vivi doing here?"

The man looked up in shock.

"How…do you know?"

The one who calls herself Ms Wednesday, got up. Her giant duck helped her up. The bird came out of no where and was pretty fast. It didn't help her when Zoro mopped the floor with her. She looked at Dante and vaguely recalls a time many years ago on Mariejois and remembers watching a young boy playing in the distance with who she thought was his mother, pointing at her and smiling.

"That was you back then, wasn't it?" She got up. "Why are you here? Aren't you-"

Dante placed a finger on her lips to quiet the princess.

"Uh uh uh, a princess should know some modesty. It's best not to tell the whole world."

Vivi blushed a bit when her lips kissed his finger but before she could reply, there was laughter behind Dante. Turning around, 2 more agents of BW had shown up. A girl twirling an umbrella and a dark skinned man wearing shades.

_**What kind of douche bag wears shades in the night?**_

"And you call yourself Baroque Works number agents. Getting your ass kicked by 2 wannabe pirates."

"Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine." Vivi said

Dante turned around to meet the new guys. He can tell they were something different. This could be fun.

"I supposed you guys aren't here to help out." Dante asked

"Obviously, not that you will be living much longer either. We're here to kill those two first. Igaram and Princess Vivi Nefertari of Alabasta. On orders from the big boss himself. You two are-"

Before the man could continue talking, Dante nodded to Zoro and quick draw his revolver, firing off several shots at them. The two dodged the shots and when Dante's revolver clicked empty, they counter attacked. Mr. 5 took out his own revolver, primitive compared to Dante's but he was just as confident in it when he took aim. He didn't get a chance to shoot because Zoro had appeared behind him and with one swing of his sword, the man was sent flying.

Dante looked up at Miss Valentine, who was floating in the air.

"I'm going to pound you into the ground!" She shouted at Dante, who slowly reloaded his revolver. First he pressed down on a lever and the top of the gun broke off, bending the front end down. All the empty shell casings popped out automatically. He reloaded one at a time as Miss Valentine started to fall faster towards him and by the time he finished reloading, he spins the chamber, closes it, and took aim.

"Nice knowing you, miss funny Valentine." He said and cocks the hammer back, finger on the trigger.

Fortunately before he could fire, Mr. 5, who was earlier sent flying by Zoro, smacked into Miss Valentine. The duo landed outside of town and unconscious.

"Hey, that was mine." Dante shouted at Zoro.

"You were taking too long. If you are gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Zoro sheathed his sword and turned around. "Hey, you awake yet!?"

He was talking to Luffy, whose body had been rolled outside. Originally Mr. 9 was going to use him as a hostage, but after the recent events, it was moot point.

Yawning, Luffy thankfully body wasn't all bloated and fluffy from eating a meal fit for 20 people.

"I'm up, I'm up." He rubbed his eyes. Then he realized that there were a lot of bodies around him. "What!? What happened here? Who did this?"

"We did. It was a trap, Luffy." Dante said as he walked towards him. "These fine townspeople tricked us with good food and booze. They wanted to rob us. Zoro and I took care of them. I'm sure Nami is roaming around, robbing them blind."

"They were bad people?! But they gave us good food! How can people who give you good food be enemies?" Luffy was in absolute shock.

"I just told you. They wanted to trick us with good food and drinks to distract us. They really wanted to our stuff."

"Good thing you explain. Otherwise, he might just be pissed that we took out the whole town." Zoro relaxed a bit.

"You really think he'll jump to that conclusion?"

He was their captain, but the rest of the crew knew he wasn't the sharpest sword in the armory, in fact, they knew he was dull as hell. "So they are bad people too?"

Luffy points to Vivi and Igaram. Dante holstered his pistol and shrugged a bit.

"Actually, we're not so sure anymore." He turned to the two, "As you can see, you DON'T want to be our enemies."

"Please, help us." Vivi said, "You need to help us."

"Do we now?" Nami's voice came behind them. Dante was about to answer, but Nami shuts him up. "Why should we help you guys? 5 minutes ago, you were trying to kill us."

"I'm begging you, please if not me, protect the princess. We'll pay you any price?"

Nami's eyes lit up at the sound of that.

"Any price you say? How does a billion sound?"

"No, Nami. We're not doing this! These people are obviously too much trouble!"

"Don't you owe me money?"

"I paid you back the same day. I didn't even use a single berri."

"But you remember interest right? You took the money, agreeing on the 300% interest. Giving back the original amount the same day doesn't mean you're off the hook."

"You seriously expect me to buy you that crap."

"So the big noble swordsman can't even hold up to even a simple promise like this?"

Somehow the idea of him breaking a promise got to him a bit.

"So do as I say and you're fine."

"Ugh…I hope you die in a fire."

"And go straight to hell, I will." She said with a smile. "Luffy, you better wake up Sanji and Usopp. We need to leave before more bounty hunters show up."

"Uh, ok." Luffy was still a bit confused as he walked back inside. "Hey Zoro, get the ship ready to sail, will ya?"

The swordsman nodded and walked away, leaving Nami and Dante with their two new "customers".

"So tell me, what's Baroque Works like? From those 2 guys, they seem more than just a simple bounty hunter company."

"Actually, they are a bit more sinister than that." Dante jumped in, "From what I know, the Marines actually class them as a criminal syndicate that moonlights as a bounty hunter company. We've actually never had enough evidence of their underground deeds to bring them to light. Also it seems someone higher up always prevents a thorough investigation. This group is also so secretive that even the higher ranking agents don't even know each other's names, especially the boss. No one knows his name. He's called number Zero. He's a man they say that wants to create some kind of ideal nation free from the government of the world. A kind of outer haven."

"I don't get it. Why would someone listen to some big boss who they don't even know?"

Igaram continued

"It's obvious because of the great wealth the company gains. Anyone part of the group, like any, works for the money. It doesn't matter if they don't know the boss so long as they are well paid."

"We can't pay you, pirates." Vivi interrupted.

"What? Why? Isn't Alabasta some kind of huge Kingdom?"

"Do you know anything about Alabasta? We used to be a great country, one of these largest in the Grand Line but now we're in the middle of a civil war. Discontent over the years came to a head just recently. Then I found about a group called Baroque Works every where I go. It turns out they've are in deep with the rebellion, some might say even funding it. I know this isn't what someone like me should be doing, but I didn't care. I am tired of staying in the side lines, not being able to do anything. So Igaram and I infiltrated BW to see who was pulling the strings and what their ultimate goal is."

"And? What we're their plan?"

"To create their own nation. That's what you said right?" Nami asked Dante

"That's the ideal, but why create a nation from scratch when you can just seize and existing one…like Alabasta. I need to go home and reveal the information I've found. The civil war, everything is a farce."

Nami sighed a bit. She knew this was going to bite them in the ass, but looking at the crew, they were nobler than pirates.

"I suppose being in a civil war means no money, huh…"

"So who's the big boss?" Luffy asked as he drags Sanji and Usopp outside. "I wanna know if he's strong."

Both Nami and Vivi were horrified of the question.

"You shouldn't ask me that. If I tell you, your lives would be in danger as well! He's one of the seven warlords of the sea! You guys don't know the power of Crocodile oh shit!"

Vivi tried to cover her mouth but the damage was done. Everyone heard the name. There was a dead silence that lasted for quite a while. Nami was frozen with shock. She knew this wasn't going to be easy but she didn't want to know that. To her, less is better. Luffy broke the silence.

"So a Warlord, huh. I wonder what he looks like?"

"I bet he's pretty powerful" Dante smiled with Luffy. They both are itching for a fight.

"Oh shut up you two. I'm leaving! They don't know what we look like, so let's cut our losses!" Nami turned around and immediately looked down at an otter riding a bird of some kind. It was drawing on a notebook pad. She didn't know whether to be scared or impressed. The otter finished drawing and showed Nami pictures of the entire crew. "Wow, those look really good."

Then she realizes how screwed they are when the bird took off with their faces.

"Well fuck it! We're done for." Nami sat down and looked like she was about to cry. Vivi tried to comfort her. "And I had such a long life ahead of me. I can feel my years just slipping away. Oh why did I join up with this band of assholes? They're nothing but trouble."

"I do have half a million saved up." The princess said. Nami held her hand out to her without saying anything.

"Fear not! I have a plan! See, we need to split. I will pretend to be you, princess. I will take these decoys with me and sail for our home. The enemy will know not the difference between us."

Everyone turned to Igaram, who was dressing in drag. His attempts to look like Vivi is very…disturbing.

"I'm sure the 7 feet blonde man can be confused with a 90 pound blue haired girl." Dante said, "Her jacket on you is too small. You're not fooling anyone."

"So, is this warlord of the sea strong?" Luffy asked

"He's one of seven pirates recognized by the government. Thus no bounty. They fight for the government and in return, within some limits, they can do whatever they want without any interference from the World. But long ago, his bounty was 80 million." Dante's explanation didn't seem to help the situation, though Luffy seemed excited

"Sounds fun. Let's do it." Luffy was pumped already.

After some creative rigging, Igaram's ship was set up with dummies to look like the Straw Hats.

"Princess, I'll be taking the Eternal Pose. If you journey with them, island hopping will be a much indirect route. It will be safer that way."

"Be safe, ok?"

"I know I always cuddle you like a child, but it's only because of duty. You are the hope of our kingdom. I know one day, you'll become a strong leader of the people." He then let out a sigh, "I just hope all this adventure and pirates don't get to your head. I'll see you at home."

As Igaram's ship sailed farther, the crew slowly walked towards their ship. Zoro had already gotten it ready with Usopp and Sanji finally awake. Zoro pulled the anchor up and Usopp unfolded the sail. They were on their way. What little supplies they were able to get from the town was already being loaded.

"Let's just hope our trip be as uneventful as possible." Nami said as she looked at her log pose. "The last thing we want is more attention."

"Nami, the log pose?" Zoro asked

"It's good. We can disembark!"

Just then, a bright light from behind them overcame the darkness. It was so bright and the sound of the explosion was so loud, you could see it for miles. Vivi turned and jumped off the boat and back on land. She can see in the distant, a fire on where Igaram's ship was.

"IGARAM!"

"They're already after us so soon?" Nami rushed to the others to set sail. "Come on, guys!"

"We need to go now!" Zoro shouted as he sets the anchor. "Get the girl!"

Dante jumped off the ship first and grabbed Vivi's arm.

"Come on, let's go!" He tugged her arm but she wouldn't budge. "Princess, we need to go!"

Still she wouldn't move. Dante placed his hands on her head, holding her close.

"Vivi, look at me. Look at me!" She looked up at Dante, tears coming down her eyes. She just lost a good friend and was on the verge of breaking down. "I know we don't look like much, but we're a strong crew…and you know who I am. I promise you, we'll make them pay! We'll get you home! Alright, you have to be strong too. Strong enough that not even the ocean can wash you away."

It took her a bit to snap out of it, but she wiped her tears away, still looking back at him. She placed a hand on his for a bit.

"Um…you're hurting me." She said

"Oh, sorry." He lets go, still looking at her.

"Hey come on, guys! Move it!" Nami shouted. The two remaining got onboard and they were off.

It was daybreak but the fog made it impossible to see anything ahead of them and they were still on the island. None of them had much sleep except for Sanji and Usopp, who actually slept. Everyone else had been awake since last night and tired. They had to be careful. Remnants of BW agents in town might still be lurking around.

"Let's just keep it down until we've reached the sea. The fog should give us just enough cover." Nami was at the helm with Usopp.

She stepped out. There first steps treading the waters of the Grand Line and already they've landed themselves in deep shit. Their first island and the first thing they did was fight people. Nami wished for once they land on an island where they don't have to shoot someone.

"Next thing you know, we'll be taking on every one of these Warlords. The way Luffy acts, I wouldn't doubt that for a second." Sanji passed her a drink and she leaned against the main mast, resting her eyes. She wasn't like the tougher guys and just running around all night was enough to exhaust her.

"Be careful of the rocks. These waters can be dangerous."

"Don't underestimate me. I'm the best navigator that ever hit the seas."

"That's very good to hear. You seem very confident in yourself."

"Why thank you." Then Nami opened her eyes. Who was she talking to?

She turned her head and Vivi was looking ahead with her duck. She turned to her because she thought the voice was coming from her. Come to mention it, that voice was a lower tone. They both turned around and behind them was a woman they've never met before.

"You've got a really nice ship. It's really cute."

"It's you!" Vivi shouted, recognizing the voice, "Miss All Sunday!"

"She's one of them?" Zoro drew his sword, "Which number is she paired up with? Is he here?"

"Her partner is Zero."

"She with Crocodile?" Nami was just as scared as she was before.

"So she's a bad guy?" Luffy asked

All Sunday smiled a bit with great confidence behind it. She wore a very suggestive outfit that didn't leave much to the imagination, all decked out in purple. She had this sexy cowgirl thing going.

"Don't be all surprised. I just bumped into Mr. 8 and decided to come over here as well. You're partner wasn't looking so good last I saw him."

"You did that to him?" She saw his ship explode. Did All Sunday do it and she's here to gloat? Taunt? What?

"You should keep your voice down?"

"It was because of you that I found out that Crocodile is the boss!"

"Actually, that's not entirely true. I just simply allowed you to follow me so the boss's identity can be revealed."

"So she's a good guy?" Luffy asked again, confused

"And then you told the boss about us!"

"I like need to. We were onto you from the start."

"Ah, she really is bad." Luffy had this scold on his face.

"Oh pipe down and let them talk." Dante pushed Luffy aside

"So what are you here for?"

:"Oh right, I almost forgot. You were all so intent and serious, that I found myself helping out. It's so amusing. The classic princess risking everything to save her kingdom. That's just priceless."

"Don't you mock me!" Vivi shouted as she drew her own weapons. Everyone else got the same idea and arms were draw on All Sunday. Even Sanji had a gun on her.

"Oh please, if you guys wanted to kill me, you wouldn't need posturing." All Sunday said.

Instantly, Sanji and Usopp were thrown down from the upper deck, their weapons flying away. Nami's staff got knocked away by some unseen force as well as Zoro. It was clear she had some sort of Devil Fruit power. Strangely enough, Dante had not drawn his weapon. He kept on staring at their new adversary.

"Don't be all excited. I've got no reason to fight any of you. I'm here on my own accord. So relax." Suddenly Luffy's straw hat just popped from his head and landed on All Sunday's hand. "You must be Monkey D. Luffy. The Straw Hat."

She played with Luffy's hat a bit before trying it on herself, putting her cowgirl hat to the side. Luffy was obviously more than peeved about his hat, not even paying attention to what she was saying.

"I'm here to tell you about the next island on your path. It's called Little Garden. That place is just full of interesting creatures. You guys wouldn't even last a day there. Of course, that's no fun, so here."

She tosses Vivi an Eternal Pose. Then gave Luffy his hat back before he started complaining.

"That will take you to an island very close to Alabasta. None of the Baroque Works agents know about it so no one will chase you."

"Why are you helping us?" Nami asked "It's obvious it's a trap."

"You'd think I'd put the effort to make it a trap. You know how easy it is for me to sink this ship right now? Just take my gift and go."

Vivi stares at the pose a bit, wondering can she even trust the shady All Sunday. She wanted to believe in this group of pirates that's taken her in. She looked at Dante, who promised to take her home. Maybe it is better to take a safer route. Then her train of thought was interrupted when Luffy grabbed the pose and tossed it into the ocean.

"Take your stupid thing and shove it. We don't need your help!" He shouted, just before Nami heel kicked him in the face.

"Come on, Luffy! She could actually be nice. Sure she looks a bit shady, but we need all the help we can get!"

"Nami…" Luffy said, shutting her up, "You're not the one who decides this ship's course."

All Sunday smiled a bit more, getting up from her seat. She placed her hat back on and hopped to the edge of the ship.

"Well, don't say I didn't try. I do hope we meet again. You seem like very interesting people."

With that, she jumped off the ship and onto her own ride, a giant turtle. The Straw Hat crew could only just watch in awe….It's a turtle…with a hat on.

Vivi hugged herself, feeling chilly from the air. Dante took off his jacket and placed it over her. She turned back to him.

"I'm really sorry. Is it alright for me to be here? I'm just trouble. You see how dangerous it can be."

Nami didn't want to hear that as she stomped over to the princess.

"Well excuse me, princess. It's a little late for apologies. If you didn't want help, you shouldn't have asked." Nami walked up to her and poked her forehead.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, where did Dante go?" Luffy asked, "He better not be eating food without me again!"

The others look around a bit. The once former Marine was no where to be found. Vivi could have sworn he was right behind her, gripping his jacket even tighter.

"Maybe he's down below. He keeps doing that constantly." Nami looked at the door to one of the store rooms. There was a note on it, "It saids here, I am taking a long nap. Don't bother me. PS, I've bolted the door shut. Privacy."

Not too far away, Miss All Sunday was sailing quietly by herself. Looking back, she smiled a bit.

"What a funny little group of pirates." She said

"Yes they are."

She turned around and there he was, Dante from seemingly no where.

"Yeah, I can do the whole appear out of no where gag, too."

Miss All Sunday did her best to keep her composure as she sat back down.

"Don't be too startled. If I wanted a fight, I would have come in shooting, Miss Nico Robin."

"You know who I am." It wasn't a question.

"From the moment you got on the ship. Though you look a lot older than your wanted poster. Not complaining really. You went from cute little girl to mature and sexy. Simply irresistible. I should be shot if I didn't know a famous bounty like yours. It'd be a black mark on my record."

"So are you Marines? A Ciper Pol agent? You don't seem to be a real pirate, but then again, neither is the rest of that crew."

"I'm ONI. Intelligence is my job. Of course the truth is always hard to find or hide."

"So what is a _**demon**_ doing all the way out here pretending to be a pirate?"

"That's really my business and not why I'm here."

Dante sits down on nothing but the air, but then from the ocean, a chair of water forms right beneath him as he sits.

"So what do you want? I assume you didn't come by yourself just to have a nice chat with little old me?"

"Just a simple question. What do you want?"

"You come out of no where and demand that I tell you what my own goals are?"

"I'm not demanding anything from you. I'm merely asking you. You're the type that disappears and very hard to find. This is a rare opportunity for me. You never stay still for too long. So I am to assume you are part of Baroque Works for a reason than just being allied with Crocodile."

"What makes you say that? I could just love being a number agent of BW for all you know. It does pay well."

"Because I know who you are. Who you really are, and not what was written on a wanted poster. The beauty of being an intelligence agent is you get access to wonderful amounts of information. According to the books, you destroyed a fleet of warships off the coast of some unknown island. The mission of that fleet was never written down, nor were serial numbers of ships, names of crew or even how you destroyed them. What was written down was a little girl, 8 years ago single-handedly overcame a several hundred Marines and killed them all, leading you to be the youngest person to ever be issued a bounty and a rather large one at that."

Robin didn't seem phased by what Dante just told her. What he said is common knowledge. She merely continued listening until he got to a point.

"The truth is completely buried by the government. They did a very thorough job making sure everything was concealed from the public. An entire island disappeared off the map. Lost forever with nothing but some vague description that it was full of monsters bent on world destruction. That ring a bell? The only way something like that could happen is what the Marines dread…a Buster Call. An indiscriminate barrage of firepower that will wipe anything it is pointed at off the face of the Earth. You've seen this before, haven't you?"

Her hands were shaking, gripping the arms of her chair. Her stare at Dante became colder and serious.

"There's the truth I'm looking for. You can hide it all you want with that seductive smile and pirate swagger but your eyes tell a different story…I apologize if I brought up unpleasant memories. I just wanted to make a point. We live in uncertain times where we don't know who to trust and literally the World is our enemy. I'm not your enemy, nor do I want to be. I'm offering you a light from the darkness."

After a bit, Nico Robin chuckled a bit and looked up at Dante. She didn't know what to make of him. Someone who can say all that with a straight face is either entirely sure of oneself or a complete utter fool.

"Well aren't you all full of poetry. You some sort of gallant knight coming to save distressed damsels?"

"Only the pretty ones."

"Alright, I'll tell you something, but only because you asked so nicely." She leaned in and whispered to Dante. He raised an eyebrow at the new found information. "Anything else you would like to ask of me?"

"One more thing actually. I want you."

He said it with such a straight face that Robin couldn't help but blush.

"On the team. I want you on the team. The Straw Hat team to be specific."

"You're asking me to join this band of misfits who calls themselves pirates? You must be joking."

"We live dangerous lives. Out here on the Grand Line, it's best to have allies, and better to have friends on your side. You shouldn't underestimate us."

"You barely know me. I've established myself as the enemy."

"You didn't kill him did you? Igaram. Right now he's floating in the middle of the ocean right now. I know one thing about you. You're not a killer, at least not one who murders in cold blood. That's one thing we all have in common. I've met all sorts of people on the Grand Line. You have another thing in common with me and a few others I know. We all have something against the government. We all seek the real truth and we all want to change the world."

Getting up from his seat, Dante turned around. Water chair dissolved into complete liquid form again, spilling all over the turtle's head, who looked up at him with a disgruntled expression.

"They call you the Demon of Ohara but, I think that nickname fits you perfectly with people like me. We are demons, the government fear people like us, so they call us that. We are their demons they created. We carry that title with pride. You'll come around, Nico Robin. I know you will." And with that, Dante jumped into the water, tip toeing on the surface, and then quietly glide back to the Going Merry. It was obvious that he was trying to impressed Robin with his ability and so he added some flair to how he left her.

Robin lay back on her chair as her turtle took her back to base. She stared at the sky thinking on Dante's offer.

"Friends huh…" She smiled as she looked up at the sky.

Dante was already well on his way back to the Going Merry, but he could have sworn he heard some kind of laugh behind him.

_**Dereshishishi**_


	5. Chapter 4

**Prehistoric Trouble**

**Eat or be eaten**

The ship was mostly quiet for a change. Luffy was sitting on the Merry Go's "head" at the front of the ship as he always have and was asleep for a while now. Sanji is cooking in the kitchen and Usopp was at the helm. Nami took the nice weather as a good sign. Unfortunately, she discovered very quickly that good weather doesn't stay that way for long out on the open sea.

"You ready for this?" Zoro asked Dante

"On you, buddy"

The two stared each other off for a long while. Vivi walked outside to get some air and noticed the two facing off. In a flash, both had their swords out. Their draws were so fast, Vivi couldn't even see it. She had seen Zoro using all 3 swords at the BW town but today, Zoro matched Dante's single sword style with one sword.

"Going easy on me are you?" He felt his blade getting pushed back ever so slowly. The way of the sword wasn't his forte usually but it doesn't mean his saber was for show.

"I think you still got some Marine in you. You need to drop the high and mighty act and be more like a pirate."

"You know who some of the first pirates were in the world? Marines who had lost their jobs when the wars were over!" He parried Zoro's next attack and pushed forward on him. "With no more work for their skills from constant war, they put them to other uses. Hence the birth of pirates as we know it. That's why the structure of well known pirates is very much like the Navy right down to the command structure."

Zoro drew his second sword and pushed back. Dante couldn't keep up because Zoro was faster when he is using more than one sword.

"Of course that doesn't happen as often as you think today. That was a long time ago."

"You talk too much!" Zoro knocks Dante's sword away and side swept him. Unfortunately, Zoro actually hit Dante, slashing him across the chest. The slash went right through his shirt and hit flesh, tearing him up. It was a wound that would kill any man. Blood came spewing out and hitting the deck.

Vivi stepped up when she clearly saw Zoro killing Dante and screamed out in shock, waking everyone.

"Mr. Bushido, how could you do that? You've killed him!"

Zoro looked up at her, confused as he put away his swords. There wasn't even blood on them, just water.

"Do what?"

Dante turned to Vivi and smiled as he looked up at her. She leaned closer and saw that the "wound" that had clearly cut through his shirt and into his chest was closing up. What looked like blood splatter had turned into water. After closing his "wound", the water color of his body returned to normal. Even the "blood" that hit the deck had turned into plain water.

"You can do that?" Vivi leaned back a little embarrassed at her reaction to pretty much nothing.

Dusting himself off, Dante smiled a bit.

"I'm touched you were so concerned about my wellbeing, princess." Dante said with an even boarder smile. "No weapon of man can harm me. That's why I told Zoro to not hold back in sparring. I'll try not to worry you next time."

Vivi walked away to hide her blush. Luffy went back to sleep and the others went back inside. Dante turned back to Zoro; the swordsman was not satisfied and wanted to continue.

"Wanna keep on going?" The swordsman asked "That little faux scratch didn't hurt you did it?"

"Cut me, shoot me. I won't feel a damn thing. Now is that all you got or do I have to beat your full potential out of you?"

Zoro smiled back as he took his swords out again.

"That was just a warm up, buddy. This time, I won't hold back" He held all his swords out, shutting up when he clenched his last sword in the mouth.

"I expect nothing less from the man that survived a duel with The Hawk."

Dante took his sword out again and held it up. A standard saber style fencing stance. Though the other hand not holding the sword should be closer to the body or in some cases, holding against the hip. Dante's style has his other hand up with fist clenched as if he was going to attack with his left fist instead of his sword.

"En garde." The Marine said as he charged forward. Zoro had blocked Dante's sword attack but barely dodge the follow up, which was his hand coming at him, which had morphed into the shape of a blade, stretching forward. If he hadn't moved his head, Dante would have really hurt him. The thrill of death dancing between them was what made their training so real. Neither were holding back, and none of Zoro's attacks could harm Dante.

Elsewhere, Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine knew they were in trouble. They had failed to complete a contract and in the organization, failure, no matter how small or correctable is death. They had no other choice, than to follow their targets, kill them and hope the boss will let that slide.

Patching themselves up was a pain. Mr. 5 had a bullet grazed his arm and being sent flying by Zoro into his partner, then landing on the hard dirt wasn't fun either. The two got on their own ship, and followed the only course from here, Little Garden. They were pissed, thought they had the jump on their targets.

"I've sent a message to the boss that we're still tracking the princess. She'll be dead before the week's end. We saw Igaram's ship getting torched. No way he survived that."

"The boss will be pissed if he discovered he got our asses kicked by some no named pirates."

"We won't underestimate them this time. If we find their ship, we'll blow it out of the water, so they can't escape Little Garden." Mr. 5 checked his revolver as he took aim and a shot came out, but instead of a bang like a gunshot, something flew out of the barrel and when it impacted the water, it exploded.

"Try not to blow us up, Mr. 5."

In the sky, a large bird and the otter, continued to observe, but decided to change course and head somewhere else after watching long enough.

"Looks like the Unluckies are gone, Mr. 5. My heart skipped. I thought they were going to kill us."

"Not without a fight. We finish this job and redeem ourselves. If not, we disappear and to hell with Mr. Zero whoever he may be."

Way ahead of them, the Straw Hats had already reached Little Garden. So far nothing out of the ordinary but that's what Usopp is there for. Somebody on the crew needs to freak out every time they are about to land on an island that may or may not have creatures of terror that hunger for human flesh specially Usopp's flesh.

"You think this island has a barbeque place?" Luffy asked, wondering what delicious food was on this island completely forgetting what happened on the last one.

"We didn't come here to dine at the local joint." Usopp said back, "If there is a local joint on this island."

"But I thought we came here for food. And this time I want BBQ!"

"We came here to get supplies to make food to last us until the next island." Nami shouted, "This island doesn't even look inhabited. It looks all jungle for miles."

Suddenly, there was a roar that came from deep in the jungle. It shook Usopp to the bones and to a lesser extent, Nami as well. She was able to keep herself from shaking as much as Usopp.

"Sounds like something is alive here." Dante said.

"Let's just stay along this river until the Log Pose is done. I just got my rare "don't go on the island of terror illness". It's very fatal if I get off this boat."

"Then you stay here oh brave warrior of the sea." Dante said when he walked out of the store room. "Some of us actually remember what we signed on for."

"I signed on for adventure, not staring death in the face."

"We run out of food, we will be doing just that. Know what it feels like to starve?"

"Dante's right. We need to go ashore to get supplies." Nami said walking out of the kitchen. "And when I mean "we", I mean you guys."

Zoro almost chuckled at what Nami said. It was obvious to him a long time ago that she wasn't going to do any heavy lifting. Sometimes he wonders other than navigate, what other purpose does she serve here.

"You seemed to be on top of what we need, why don't you go?"

Nami did her best innocent routine and all sexy like. She bit her lip a bit as she changed her voice tone. She had absolutely no shame and not above using her feminine charm on men.

"Because, I'm just a weak little girl, who needs some strong men to help her. You guys are strong men, right?"

Dante and Zoro weren't convinced at all. Zoro rolled his eyes because wasn't that stupid; Dante knew that Nami wasn't going to put out. Luffy just wasn't paying attention but Sanji jumped ship instantly at the sight.

"Don't worry, Nami swan! I'll get some good ingredients to make something tasty!"

"And there he goes." Zoro said as he prepares to jump ship as well. "I'm going to get something for myself. I want options on the menu this time."

Little by little, the crew started abandoning their ship to explore the island. The more "sensible" of the crew, Usopp and Nami, decided to stay aboard, but now suddenly they are without their muscle. Even Vivi jumped ship and joined Dante. The Marine took a large bag from the armory and slung it over his back when he joined Vivi, who followed Luffy on Karoo.

It didn't take Usopp too long to figure out that he and Nami are now alone and they suck at fighting. Then a huge explosion rocked the boat.

"What was that explosion?! Was it a volcano?"

"Oh great, now who's got our backs?" Usopp asked, shaking in his legs. He tried his best to man up. "Not to worry, Nami. I, Captain Usopp will protect this ship while our crew obediently gets supplies for us."

"Nice speech, Usopp…If you didn't look like you were about to piss yourself." She opened the newspaper and reread an article she came across earlier. She didn't want Vivi to see it.

Deep in the jungle, Dante walked along with Vivi as Luffy jumped ahead. They were pretty quiet until Luffy was almost out of sight. Vivi took the chance to ask Dante a few things as she pulled Karoo closer to him.

"You're not going to tell me why you are really with this bunch of pirates?"

"I'm just along for the ride. As you can see, they're a fun bunch. Always diving head first into crazy. Especially our captain there."

"The last I saw you was 8 years ago. I was 10 at the time. You didn't seem the swashbuckling type back then. Though you did seem like a wild child"

"I remember you back then. I was playing in the garden by myself. That was our first meeting, right, though I wasn't actually alone either."

"Yeah, I remember this beautiful lady watching over you. That was your mother, right?"

Dante looked ahead when Vivi mentioned his mom. He smiled a bit but it was only for a moment.

"Yes."

"I didn't get a chance to meet her when we played that time. She seemed content to let you wander around with a stranger."

"The same with you. Your dad was busy in a meeting and you just wander everywhere. I…kinda miss those innocent days. We had no idea what the world outside our homes were like but once we've set foot out our doors, things will never been the same."

"Your Devil Fruit powers…How did you get it? It's really amazing."

Dante turned to her and smiled a bit, not answering her question.

Back at the ship, Nami was reading Usopp a book she had found about the island.

"According to this book, this island is a place of horrors and wonders, of ancient beasts and giant monsters." She turned to Usopp with teary eyes. "And we are right in the middle of all that."

"I hope the others are doing alright…Nah, I'm sure they are fine." Usopp said as the two of them didn't noticed the insanely large shadow that was beginning to cover them. "We'll be fine here. Those guys can take care of themselves."

"I just hope Vivi will be fine."

The T-rex was stomping closer as it chased Vivi, hunger in its eyes. Luffy was still no where in sight. Vivi was rightfully shitting her pants since Dante was not even moving or even caring. He was just standing there, observing the creature curiously. Karoo was running as fast as he could with Vivi riding him.

"Dante…it's coming! We should run! What are you doing?"

The Marine had laid down his bag from the start and started assembling something. Vivi was already running back towards him.

"Do something!"

"Yeah, yeah, princess." Dante said as he snapped the final part in place, and then picked up a bullet, examining it. Then another one.

Once Vivi was passed him, Dante lifted what he had built, a new rifle. It had a short octagonal barrel, a finely polished walnut stock and a shiny brass receiver. He racked the lever action and took aim down the sights, then after taking a deep breath he squeezed the trigger, firing the rifle. The bullet went straight into the dino's head and right when it was about to munch down on Dante, he died and fell over. Dante took a step to the left to prevent being crushed. Standing over the T-Rex, he racked the lever action rifle again, ejecting the empty shell, and took a seat on top of the thing. The hole the bullet went into didn't seem that big, but the exist wound where the bullet came out at the back of the head was just nasty.

"Looks like I got dinner for the next couple of week. I bet Sanji and Zoro are doing better than this."

And behold, not too far away, Sanji and Zoro were comparing trophies. Each one got ridiculously bigger one after another. Soon enough, the two had almost a dozen corpses of different animals ranging from triceratops to saber tooth tigers.

"Mine's much longer. Take a look at the 3 horns it got."

"That's mostly bone. See this thing I got with its long neck. Luffy wants meat and this will last him awhile."

The two began to argue on as they each started to chop up and pack their meat into bags for the journey.

While those two were creating the next great extinction on the planet, Luffy decided to ride a dinosaur. Thankfully, this one wasn't a meat eater. Dante looked up at his captain, rifle still at hand. Vivi did still not believe what she was seeing here. These people were either fearless or just plain insane or both.

Vivi watch Luffy bounce around the long necks as he didn't have a care in the world. He started jumping from one head to another.

"You know for a man whose worth 30 million; he doesn't seem the typical pirate that strikes fear into the hearts of people."

"I know he doesn't look like much, but he's beaten quite a few fearsome guys of the East Blue from what I've heard. Arlong, Don Kreig, Captain Kuro to name a few notable ones and even Marine Captain Axe Hand Morgan."

Dante really didn't want to mention Buggy the Clown and no one's told him about that one lady pirate with the smooth skin. He wanted to make it seem like Luffy is this bad ass under his soft features and really at the end of the day, fighting the toughest the world has to throw at you is all in a day's work, but no one wants to deal with a clown.

Luffy jumped down when he heard Morgan's name.

"Did you say old Axe Hand? Yeah, he was a tough one. Though I wonder what that one kid's doing now."

"Who?"

"He's name's Coby. He's a great kid. Said he was going to be a Marine something one day. Mayor I think."

"I think Zoro told me about that. It was a pretty interesting story. And it's officer, Luffy. He wants to be an Officer in the Marines. The newspaper might have mentioned him traveling with Vice Admiral Garp."

Dante wasn't looking but when he mentioned Admiral Garp, Luffy froze a bit before continuing on. Vivi continued with her explanation of life on The Grand Line.

"Anyway, about all the dinosaurs. I've heard the mysterious conditions of the Grand Line separates each major island into different extremes even. Alabasta is mostly a hot desert country but the closest major island to it is a very cold snowy place. There's really no other explanation for why this place's condition is prehistoric."

"Then let's mind the bugs. Wouldn't want us to contract some kind of prehistoric disease."

Luffy continued to play around, shouting at Vivi and Dante.

"Hey guys! The view's great! We can have our picnic here!"

"We're not here for lunch, Luffy!"

Captain Stretch clearly wasn't paying attention or didn't care. Either way, Dante rolled his eyes when Luffy just kept on moving forward, blazing a trail.

"There's a mountain with a lot of holes in it. It's like Swiss cheese. Oh look! It's a volcano! Oh look at that!" He stretched down the head of the long neck to get its attention. "Hey buddy, can you move over there?"

He points to the mountain and the long neck tried to shake Luffy off like a fly, even swapping at him with its tail, and then ignored him when he did come off. Luffy got bored at one point and slid down the neck. His little ride was cut short when another long neck reached out and swallowed Luffy whole. It came out of no where so suddenly, Dante couldn't even believe it.

"Oh crap." Dante aimed his gun at the long neck. "Hey dino! You're not supposed to swallow gum gum!"

Before Dante could fire, he heard something that sounded like a gust of wind that cuts through the air. Before he could blink, Dante witnessed the long neck come clean off. It was then he finally noticed the giant shiny sword that was being held by a giant hand, connecting it to well, a giant.

"Double crap." Dante didn't even try to aim his gun since the giant was in fact a…giant and bigger than the dino he killed by the way. What's he going to do? Shoot it?

Luffy fell out of the severed neck and landed on the giant's shield. The big guy laughed so loud that Vivi and Dante had to cover their ears.

"You're an interesting fella. Grappling with dinosaurs despite your size. That's the closest thing I've ever come to seeing entertainment."

Luffy looked up at the giant with the beard.

"Whoa, you're huge! Are you human?"

"I am the greatest warrior of Elbaf, Dorry! Yagagagagaga"

"Well hi. I'm Luffy, a pirate."

"Nice to meet you, little pirate."

"Oh and those guys are part of my crew. Dante, Vivi and her pet bird Karoo,"

"Since you're my first guest in such a long time, I invite you to my home for dinner."

Vivi whispered to Dante, "He said for dinner right? Not AS dinner."

"I think we're a bit on the bite size to feed that guy."

The giant Dorry brought the group to his "home", which really was just a cave at the base of the mountain with holes. He cooked the long neck into a big meal. Well it's a big meal for little people. Dorry seemed to be munching most of it down while he told them his story, mostly pirate journeys and how his constant 100 year duels with his shipmate, Broggy.

"So you've been fighting for a century now?" Luffy was amazed at the tales, "73,665 straight duels? That's a long time to fight someone."

"To little people like you maybe, but for giants like me, 100 years is nothing. My counterpart, Broggy is set over there on the other side of the island."

Dante took a bite out of the meat. First time eating a dinosaur and most likely the last. He was savoring it.

"I wonder how the others are doing." Dante asked, "We've been gone all day. Nami and Usopp must be worried."

"You guys can obviously take care of yourselves."

"No, I mean worried about themselves. They aren't exactly the type to stand and fight. If they meet the other giant, they'd be pissing themselves."

Dante couldn't be more wrong. On the other end of the island, Nami and Usopp were listening to Broggy about the 100 years of battling. Dueling constantly, day and night until one is left. Nami was really just bored but glad the big guy wasn't planning on eating them despite the pile of bones inside the mountain.

"That's amazing. Truly inspiring." Usopp was completely enthralled by the warrior concept the giants conveyed. "I want to be a great warrior just like these guys. You have to tell me where Elbaf is. I want to learn from true warriors of the sea!"

Far away, on the other side of the island, Mr. 5 and Ms Valentine were meeting with their fellow agents, Mr. 3 and his partner, a little girl called Miss Golden Week. You can tell his number is 3 because off his hair. Tons of jell must have went into that hair to keep it up like that.

Mr. 5 had an idea why Mr. 3 is here. The man is either here to take them out or, knowing him, offer some kind of compromise. Either way, he's got a bad feeling. Seriously, look at the man, how does he keep all that hair up?

"You shouldn't waste your energy giving me stern looks," Mr. 3 said, "Be glad I'm not here to take you two out. I am here for these guys."

He passed them a poster with Dorry and Broggy.

"Those 2 have been out of sight for a hundred years." Mr. 3 said, "No one's heard a peep about them…until now."

"Now we know why. They've been here this whole time." Mr. 5 stared at the poster with a smile.

"They are worth 200 million now. We can split the reward between us all if we work together."

"That's a nice offer, but we're here for Princess Vivi, who's traveling with a group of pirates called the Straw Hats."

"We can get them too. The boss sent me to back you up. Thankfully he didn't hear about how you 2 nimrods failed to get them the first time. With me here, I'll finish the job for you. You can help me with the giants."

Mr. 5 looked like he was about to object.

"Remember, I am number 3, that means I am a higher rank than you."

"That's not how the numbers work."

"All the same, we are each numbered according to strength. You might not like taking orders from me, but you will obey. Doing so, you'll get you job done and get paid."

Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine looked to each other and back to Mr. 3. They really do have no choice knowing what Mr. 3 and his little partner can do compared to them.

Using his skill at making wax figures and his partner's ability to color them, Mr. 3 had captured Nami and Zoro when they went off into the jungle alone. The wax user placed his captives on a platform made of his wax. They were helpless to fight back. Even Zoro with his skill swordsmanship, couldn't even scratch the wax with his blades.

Mr. 3 was originally going to use Mr. 5's explosive skill to injure one of the giants, so when they fight, one will have an advantage and take him down. But now, he has hostages and this can work to his advantage. He had created a large cake of wax using his power and the flames of the burning candles had drawn all players to the field.

Vivi had rushed off to find Nami, but was instantly caught by Mr. 3 almost instantly. Dante had warned her of the trap, but when it was clear she wasn't going to listen to him, he stayed back to think of a plan. The giants, with all their power had been brought down by the surprise attack of Mr. 3's wax wax fruit. They were pinned to the ground and when the wax harden, it felt like steel.

Usopp was hiding behind the trees, thinking of how he can escape from all this. Karoo had been captured when Vivi wasn't looking, his legs tied and tossed to the ground. When Usopp saw Karoo as a chance to escape, he was kicked in the back by Mr. 5 and on the ground.

Luffy felt helpless seeing his crew being captive to the stupid looking man with the number 3 on his head.

Mr. 3 was laughing all giddy like. He's really full of himself at this point. The wax was working quickly to cover Vivi, Nami and Zoro. Usopp was trapped under Miss Valentine, who sat on top of him, ever slowly increasing her weight.

Dante was standing closer to the large thing of wax, gun in hand. Mr. 3 laughed out loud seeing that he has the advantage. He looked around and only saw Mr. 3 and Miss Valentine out in the open, and wondered where Mr. 5 was. It didn't matter. He needs to act quickly.

"Now drop your guns or your friends will be turned into lovely candles. I can assure you that they will die horribly being stuck unable to breath once encased in my wax."

But the man's speech was interrupted by a loud gun shot.

Mr. 3 looked down at his foot and there was a smoldering hole next to it. Dante cocked the hammer back again and took aim.

"You…you shot me."

"Not yet, I have." Dante said with a smirk. He wanted him to reverse the candle effect, not kill him…yet

"How dare you interrupt my speech!? You think you can interrupt my moment of triumph?!"

Bang again. This time, it caused candle man to jump a bit. Dante had missed on purpose again.

"Next one's for you…and I think that'll make…3, right? So third time's the charm…Mr. 3?"

"What are you?"

"Pirate." Dante said with a smile. "You want me to count to 3?"

"Enough with the number 3 puns!"

At any time Dante could have killed him, but realistically, he didn't know what would happen if he dies. Would his powers remain active? It doesn't look like the wax are that have been harden are in his control. If he has the ability to soften and harden wax, he could release them. This might take a certain amount of convincing on Dante's part. He'll start with one leg and work his way up.

"Luffy, get them off that that thing. I've got this guy." Dante didn't even saw it coming as he got blasted forward. He turned and noticed Mr. 5 shooting his gun. Dante's back was completely gone from the blast as he fell to the ground.

"Heh, so the man was all talk." Mr. 5 aims his gun at Luffy next. Just then, a blast of water sent Mr. 5 into the woods. When the man got back up, he noticed Dante standing up and his back was just fine.

"You'd shoot a man in the back?"

"Well…it is the safest way, don't you think?"

Dante readied his revolver and took aim.

"Then I'll shoot you in the head. That's the safest way to make sure someone's dead, don't you think?"

Mr. 5 fired his revolver but missed as Dante dodged. He knew if he got hit by whatever was coming out of that gun, he'd be splat and it was annoying to reform oneself after an explosion. He wasn't weak against explosions but getting hit with something of the force of a grenade wasn't fun.

"Son of a bitch." Dante said as he dove behind a tree. He looked at his arm as it formed back. That unexpected hit in the arm had blown it apart. If he was a regular Joe, he would be bleeding or just dead from the blast.

Taking cover, Dante reached out and fired his revolver, suppressing Mr. 5 behind some trees. Going back into cover, he reloaded his rifle, one cartridge at a time. Mr. 5 was listening intently. He saw how Dante reloads his weapon and waited while he was reloading to shoot his cover into pieces with his explosives. Trees were blowing up all around him as he jumped behind a rock for cover. If the thick jungle trees weren't going to stop the explosives, a rock wasn't going to either. He had to beat this guy fast. They were in trouble.

"Quit hiding! Get out so I can shoot you!" Mr. 5 shouted

"While don't you stand still so I can shoot you!" Dante replied, which gave away his position. Mr. 5 fired his weapon again, utterly destroying the rocks and trees. Instead of a dead body, it was just nothing. Dante tried to attack with his water, throwing a stream at the man, but the explosions being "fired" at him caused his water attacks to be ineffective. He seems to be able to keep up the explosions at an incredible rate of rapid fire if he wanted to.

Dante had slink away in water form and reformed in another location.

"I can't throw water at him. He'll just throw explosions at me." He reloaded his revolver again

He peered around a corner and can tell that Luffy was having some problems dealing with Mr. 3 as he was getting his ass kicked by "Robo 3".

Dante checked his weapon again. He needed fire and unfortunately, he wasn't a fire guy so where to find fire? Light one? No, that's not going to work…throw a torch? Maybe but that would mean lighting a fire and then throw it. Any movement to make fire would give away his position and he wants to be as far away from Mr. 5 as possible.

Maybe not…Dante turned to see that there are large candles on top of that…whatever it was and large candles means large fire.

"That'll work." He said to himself as he slithered through the bushes and then surprised Mr. 5 from behind

Dante wrapped his arms around Mr.5's arm the moment he fired his gun. He aims it at a different direction and the blast knocked over one of the candles on top of the "cake". It fell and landed on Zoro. Of course it wasn't enough to melt the candle. Not big enough.

"Usopp!" Dante shouted, who threw a bottle of oil into the fire, causing it to explode and engulf everyone in flames.

In no time at all, Zoro came flying out with fire in his swords as he attacked Mr. 5. Nami and Vivi came out to help Usopp and smacked Miss Valentine from the sky before she could crush Usopp.

Dante took Mr. 5's gun from his hand and then crushed it into pieces.

"That's the end of that." He turned to Vivi and Nami, who looked no worse for wear considering they were probably choking to death under the wax and then went under extreme heat. Parts of their clothes were burnt off and their skins were a bit singed, but other than that, they were beautiful. If Sanji sees them now, he'd cream himself. Dante enjoyed the sight, taking their immodest appearance as a reward for saving them.

"Nice job, Usopp." Zoro said as he put his swords away, "Though a little less fire next time. I'm not a fan of being roasted."

Luffy had taken out Mr. 3 already, but the wax guy ran off, followed by his little partner. Luffy chased after the man but lost track of him. Running back, Luffy checked on the others.

"Hey, I lost the wax guy. He's gone."

"Forget about him. We need to tend to our wounded. Big guy over here's in bad shape from that explosion."

Dante checked over the wounds of the giants and nodded when they seemed fine. When Mr. 3 had captured the giants, he had Mr. 5 throw an explosion at their faces. Thankfully, they were fine.

"Everyone else alright?" Dante asked

"Hey, it just occurred to me. Where is Sanji in all this?" Nami asked

"Yeah, that's a good question. Maybe he's already cooking us lunch." Dante said

"Nah, that love sick puppy is probably lost in the jungle looking for Nami and I said Nami, not any of us." Zoro was right. Sanji would rush to save Nami…but just only her.

Not far away, Sanji was enjoying a cup of tea in Mr. 3's hideaway. He told himself while he was here, why not? Just when he was about to leave, the Transponder Snail rang in a call. He was cautious at first, but what the hell as he picked up the phone.

"Hello, you've reached the Crap Café, how may I take your order?"

"Very funny, jackass." A deep raspy voice replied. "Your report is late. Give me an update."

"Sorry, you're breaking up. Who's this again?"

"It's Mr. 0 you idiot. You hit your head on something?"

Sanji froze a bit. The man he's talking to is the boss of Baroque's Work, the man messing with Vivi's country. This made Sanji's blood boil but he kept his cool.

"Um, nothing. Report, boss?"

"The mission about Princess Vivi and the Straw Hat pirates. Have you taken care of them, yet?"

"Oh them? Yeah, they're out of the way. No trouble."

"That's good. The Unluckies are already on their way to confirm your kill and your payment. They've also got an additional package for you."

"Package?"

"It's an Eternal Pose that will take you straight to Alabasta Kingdom. Once here, you and Ms Golden Week will take part in the next phase of the operation. Details and new orders will come once you've reached your destination. "

"Understood." Sanji prepared to hang up. He turned and he saw…a Sea Otter and a Vulture. "The hell are those?"

The Otter came charging at Sanji, but with quick foot work, he sent the thing into the wall, practically crushing its head. The Vulture was a bit more challenging with the rapid firing guns on its back. Again, with quick foot work, he managed to grapple its neck with both his feet and with one twist; he snapped it, instant death.

"Um, sorry about that boss. That Straw Hat was tougher than I thought. He's really dead now."

There was a cold silence from the phone. Then Mr. 0 talked

"So…you're telling me your report was…incorrect."

"Yeah, it was, but it's correct now. Straw Hat is now dead."

"I...see…Well then proceed to your next destination. We will be going radio silence. I've gotten reports that the Marines have been secretly investigating us. I don't want them to know more than they already think they know. From now on all orders will be by letter via the usual procedure. That is all…and good luck, Mr. 3."

Sanji put the phone down and looked over the bodies. The Vulture had a bag with lots of money in it. Nami will be happy about this. The Otter had an Eternal Pose with Alabasta written on it.

"This'll be useful."

Sanji started walking around and ran towards the explosions and smoke since it's obvious who caused it.

The giants by then had melted back to normal and were already chatting up on the battle, laughing about it.

"Well, it's been fun here, but we need to go." Dante asked

"We still need to let our log pose set." Nami said, looking up at the giants, "Hey, big guys! How long does it take for a log pose to be set to this island?"

Groggy turned to Nami.

"About a year."

That was completely unacceptable. They didn't have a year. Hell, they don't even have a month or even a week.

"What!? A year?! We don't have that long to wait!" Nami felt to her knees. "This is bad. How are we going to get off this island?"

"Well there also used to be a giant crab off the coast of this island. Good thing for you guys since we killed it a while ago. But there's nothing we can do about the log pose."

Vivi sat down a bit.

"This is all my fault. Those BW guys came here because of me."

Dante placed a hand on her head.

"Enough with that, alright. We came out on top either way."

"Hey Nami! Vivi, love!" Sanji shouted as he came from the jungle, "And the rest!"

Usopp turned to Sanji at his comment to ignore the guys.

"Where have you been?" Dante asked, "We've been fighting for our lives here."

Sanji jumped when he saw the giants.

"Holy shit! What are those things?!"

"Easy now, cook." Zoro said, "They're friends. So where have you been?"

"I admit, I was actually a bit lost when I bumped into this hideout that belongs to some guy named Mr. 3. There was a transponder snail inside and guess who called? None other than Mr. 0."

Vivi got up when she heard Zero.

"Yeah, I pretended to be Mr. 3 and told Mr. 0 that we're all dead. Hopefully BW will stop sending guys after us."

"That sounds a bit easy. And Mr. 0 just took your word for it?" Dante asked

"Well, apparently 2 more agents of BW showed up, but I took care of them."

"It doesn't matter either way. We still can't get off this island. It'll take a whole year for our log pose to set."

"Not without this." Sanji tossed Nami the Eternal Pose, "We can get head straight for Alabasta from here. Also, Nami, this is for you."

Nami caught the bag and was ecstatic when she saw it full of money. That alone reenergized her.

"Alright everyone! No time to waste." Nami said, "Let's go!"

The great warriors of Elbaf laughed as they helped the Straw Hats pack up supplies.

"It's not a lot, but we've packed enough food for a few months." Dorry said

Dante looked up at the massive pile of meat and sighed.

"Don't you mean a few years, guys? We can't store all this meat in the ship. Hey Sanji, you're the cook. Take as much of that pile that we can fit on the ship."

"Just a small chunk will feed us for a few months. Anymore and we'll sink the ship."

A few hours of packing later, the ship was ready to go. Vivi stood at the front of the ship looking ahead. Nami had told her to hold onto the Eternal Pose. She was thinking of her home and the civil war brewing.

"All good?" Dante asked her as he walked up.

"Did I ever say thank you? For helping me."

"No need. Everyone here is all in on this."

"You know I am still not going to believe you really are a pirate. A pirate would at least ask for a reward."

"I suppose my reason is I like your personality. It's a bit cliché but you're a noble who is indeed noble, not the false rich elites of others. You'll make a wonderful queen one day."

Vivi smiled a bit.

"My dad said the same thing."

"Also because you're beautiful and I am not one to let a beautiful woman down."

That made her blush, but she kept on smiling.

Soon, the ship was out on open sea again. They waved good bye to their giant friends, hoping one day to meet them again.

"It's gonna be a long journey to Alabasta, but we'll be alright." Nami said but even though she was glad they were leaving the jungle island, she felt extremely tired "That whole ordeal really took a lot out of me."

"You should go rest." Vivi said, taking the eternal pose. "I'll keep a look out from here, ok?"

Nami nodded and started to go inside, but didn't quite make it as she started to lose her balance.

As Nami closed her eyes, she couldn't help but feel dizzy. She felt hot all over and couldn't think straight as she slumped onto the main mast. Nami fell over and was on the floor, breathing heavy. Dante noticed this first and rushed over to her.

"Guys, we've got a problem here!" Dante said as he placed his hand on Nami's forehead. "Nami's sick…real bad. We need a doctor. Fast!"

Dante then realized that none of them are doctors. As a Marine, he had been trained in first aid and survival skills but he does not know what is wrong with Nami. When they brought her inside, she was getting worse by the second. Dante did his best to help her.

"I've never seen such a high fever this fast. She was fine just when we left the island. Maybe something from there got to her."

"It could be the fact that she's new to the Grand Line." Vivi said, "A lot of sailors can't handle the changing conditions of this place."

"No, that's not it. This is something more serious." Dante didn't say any more. He didn't want the other guys to panic if he saids this could be life threatening. Dante could feel Nami's pulse being erratic and her body heat was too high for this to be normal. When he was covering her with sheets, he noticed a swell on her torso. It looked like a bug bite but it became what looks like bruising with puss coming out. "This might be the cause."

"Let's go back to Little Garden! If she got it from there, the big guys can help us!" Luffy suggested.

"We're already too far off into sea. It'll be very hard for us to find that island again at the direction we are going. We'd be lucky to get to Alabasta with the Eternal Pose."

"Alabasta is still several days away." Vivi said, "Nami might not make it that far."

The princess felt a hand grab her and turned to see Nami way awake. She struggled to breath let alone talk but she persisted.

"We can't stop…your home is in big trouble. The newspaper there in the desk."

Sanji went over and grabbed the papers, passing them to Vivi. She took a read and spotted the article about her home. The others hovered behind her to read. Vivi read out loud to them.

"It saids that half the Royal army has defected to the rebel forces. That means the rebels now outnumber the army. This is getting worse by the minute."

"That paper is over 3 days old now. You can't worry about my problems."

Vivi was about to cry. Millions of her fellow citizens are in trouble and war is about to break out now that the rebels have more than enough men on their side. In the chaos, Crocodile will move in and take over. That isn't the reason she's on the verge of tears, but because of Nami. They have only known each other for a short time, but Nami is willing to risk her life for her cause.

In Nami's mind, she sees Alabasta is just like her home, threaten by evil men. She does not want Vivi to suffer like she did.

Vivi held Nami's hand gently and nodded.

"We get you a doctor first…then we go to my home. We can't navigate the ship without you. This crew needs you right now and that is more important than my problem that is miles away. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. You are right here."

Nami felt tears coming out but was too tired to speak. She went back to sleep after that.

Vivi turned to the others.

"We need to find Nami a doctor. Everything else is on pause. I know of an island close to Alabasta. It's called Drum Kingdom. It's an island with some of the best doctors in the Grand Line. We go there."

Dante stepped up to rally the others.

"Alright guys, you heard the lady. Man your positions." He turned to Luffy at the door, "Luffy, put that meat back. Nami doesn't need that."

Sanji kicked Luffy in the face for stealing from the fridge again.

"Usopp, the rudder. Zoro, get on the crow's nest and keep an eye out for snow. Drum Kingdom is a snow country. The waters near it should be just as cold."

_**How does he know that? Never mind**_

"Alright then." Zoro didn't speak his mind and went outside. He was wondering if Dante even knows where Drum Kingdom is, but at this moment, it doesn't matter. He seems to know what he's doing.

Dante turned to Luffy, who got up from Sanji's kick.

"Luffy…um, Cap'n?" Luffy looked up at him as he ate the chunk of meat. "You mind getting the sails?"

"Leave it to me!"

Dante turned back to Vivi and smiled.

"Keep Nami company, alright? We got this." He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.

Vivi nodded as Dante took a pitcher and touched it with his finger, swirling the liquid around. He then took a cup and pulled put out small bits from it and into the cup in his hand.

"Have her drink from the pitcher. I've purified it. If you need more, just call me. Usopp's own purifier is good, but I'm better."

When Dante walked outside, he tossed the water from his cup and looked ahead as he helped man the sails.

In the distant, he can see the small bits of snow fall. He can already tell their next island will be just as troublesome as the last.


	6. Chapter 5

**Winter is coming**

**Is there a doctor in the house?**

Nami wasn't looking as hot as she's supposed to be, but she was hot in a bad way. Her fever wasn't going down and she was more unconscious than awake for most of their search for a doctor. In fact, it has been almost a day since Nami last opened her eyes. Everyone was worry, but not as worried then Dante, who knew enough about illnesses that this was not your run of the mill fever where you can just starve.

Every now and then, Dante would walk back into the room to check up on Nami, changing her water with a fresh pitcher and generally keeping Vivi in high spirits.

"How's she doing?" He asked

"Not well. Her fever is still very high and hasn't gone down. She's came in an out of consciousness a few times during the night to puke or go to the bathroom. She almost wet the bed once because she was too weak. I had to help her."

"I'm sure she appreciates it. As do the rest of us. It's a good thing there's another girl to tend to Nami's sweating. Everyone wouldn't hear the end of it from her when she gets better that any of us guys touched her while she's helpless."

Vivi smiled a bit at the comment. Though she wondered if any of them would actually feel bad or awkward.

"Isn't this the part where you question why I am alright with changing dirty clothes, and cleaning up the mess of a sick person? I'm a princess after all."

"You're not that kind of cliché princess. You're a different kind."

"Which is?"

"As I said before. You're the true noble. One who actually does things that reflects that title. To be noble, of nobility has nothing to do with being rich and power and inheriting a kingdom. It's a little deeper than that."

"The same can be said about you, right?"

"I'm not a noble. I'm a demon, created by the people who call themselves nobles…"He looked at Nami to make sure she was still sleeping and not actually awake and listening. "Just don't tell the crew about who I am. We all have our secrets."

"And you seem to know all mine."

"I'm an intelligence officer. Secrets are my job. All secrets."

"Sounds like the mindset of a pervert."

"Secrets are also none of my concern. Keeping them is. You don't have to worry about the things I know about you."

"You know so much about me. It's a bit unfair. You need to tell me more about you."

Dante turned to her, a bit curious.

"Why?"

"I just want to get to know you, that's all. It's only fair. You're mysterious dashing rogue cliché is getting kinda old."

"Oh, so you think I'm dashing. Is that a fact?" He said back with a grin, and Vivi turned away again to hide her blush.

The rest of the crew was getting restless. They have already entered snowy waters and looking in all directions for the Drum Kingdom. None of them had a good sleep since Nami became sick. Even Zoro with all his stern disposition constantly was worried, even though he did a good job not looking it. Sanji especially wasn't looking good because of his borderline obsession with beautiful women, though it's all one sided on his end.

Usopp, manning the helm, looked to Sanji. Love struck or not, Sanji was just as worried as everyone else is about Nami.

"It's going to be alright. We'll get Nami a doctor and she'll be taken care of."

Sanji dropped what he was doing and turned to Usopp.

"But Nami looks bad! If anything happens to her, I don't know what to do! She's my reason for being here!"

"I thought you're here because Luffy asked you to be here."

"Then I saw Nami and that convinced me. She's the one."

"You say that about EVERY girl we bump into. You remember the last time you even got too close to Nami to confess your undying love? "

"She was showing her affection towards me."

"She kicked you in the face."

"That was a love tap."

"That love tap sent your ass into the wall. Took me half an hour to pry you out of there."

Dante walked into the room with an empty pitcher to fill up.

"How is she?" Sanji asked,

"No change. More water." Sanji filled up the pitcher again. "Right now, she's stable but that could change…for the worse. We need to find that island fast and that doctor faster."

Outside, Luffy kept watch ahead. Zoro had came down from the crow's nest.

"What's up?" Luffy asked

"You know, if we haven't met Dante, I wouldn't believe a man can stand on water…"

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah that." Zoro points ahead, and Luffy looked to see a man standing on the water dressed like some kind of court jester.

"Um….yeah."

Usopp had stepped outside for a break. Sanji went to switch with Dante to watch over Nami. Usopp was wondering what the other guys were looking at.

"So…what are we looking at?" Usopp asked as he looked ahead of them to see that same man. "Who's that guy?"

Zoro turned to Usopp.

"So you see him too?"

"I thought we were seeing things," Luffy said. "Like the cold is getting to us."

Just then, the man standing on the water started to rise as an incredibly huge ship came from the water. The wave caused by the ship coming out of the water had rocked the Going Merry. The sound of large gears and other things change the huge whale like ship into looking closer to a typical ship with sails and the like. Then the 3 saw the flag and that was what set them off.

"A pirate ship!" All 3 shouted

Dante turned to Sanji and then grabbed his rifle that was on the table.

"Look after Nami. Vivi, stay here with Sanji."

The moment Dante rushed outside, he stopped dead as the door behind him closed. He looked to see Luffy, Usopp and Zoro…surrounded by a ton of guns with guns pointed at them.

"Right…and who are our guests?" Dante asked

Luffy shrugged.

"Don't know. Pirates maybe. Seems like they are raiders."

"I kinda figured that with the guns pointed at us."

Dante looked around a bit more and then noticed a very fat man with this funny looking fur coat. He was eating this piece of meat that his sword was holding like it was meat on a stick. Then the guy chew through the blade and then the hilt, finally swallowing the pommel.

_**At least that guy's getting a lot of iron in his diet. **_

"What kind of a guy eats whole swords like that?" Luffy asked, "That's just too weird. Swords aren't candy!"

"He's going to need some heavy fiber to get that out of his system." Zoro joked.

"So…what's your business with us?" Dante asked "Besides holding defenseless sailors up at gunpoint."

The fat man walked on deck, still chewing his "snack".

"And here I thought this was a pirate ship. Ok, I'll get to the point; we're trying to get to the Drum Kingdom."

That gave Dante cause to raise an eyebrow. He looked around and can plainly see these guys aren't pirates despite their flag and intentions. Well technically they are pirates. They've boarded their ship by force and holding them at gun point, most likely going to ask for their stuff. Besides that fact, they seemed more like soldiers.

"Drum Kingdom?" Dante pretended to not know what that is.

"Yeah, it's a snow country. Very nice this time of the year. You guys wouldn't happen to have an eternal pose or a log pose do yah? We lost ours."

_**It's either a miracle they bumped into us or we have horrible, horrible luck.**_

Dante pretended to think about it as the heel of his shoe stretched a bit and turned into water. It started to stretch and move like a tentacle as it moved under the closed door. Sanji almost wanted to kick and step on the thing if he didn't know it can only come from Dante.

"Oh, ew! What is your fucking problem, Dante?! You trying to gross the girls out?" the cook shouted as Dante's extra limb wagged around to get his attention. It then wrote a message on the wall. "We…are…under…attack…Come…out…kicking."

Sanji smiled a bit and nodded.

"Well…this is an interesting turn of events."

Dante retracted his tentacle and put his hands up. His finger on the trigger of his rifle.

"Nope. Can't say I know what those are. We're a bit lost here in these parts."

The fat man shook his head in disappointment.

"Oh well. Guess we'll just have to settle with your ship then. It looks tasty."

The man then took a huge bite out of the hull and tore a section of the Merry apart but that was after the man's mouth enlarged to look more like a whale.

"Hey! Our ship isn't food! Cut that out!" Luffy shouted, then smacked the soldiers next to him, "You're gonna pay for that!"

Dante took that as a signal and spin cock his rifle. The first person he pointed to got a face full of lead and was knocked over board by the blast.

Sanji came crashing out of Nami's room, feet first. This led to a big pile up of soldiers as they came crashing onto the main mast of the ship. The cook then spun around like a top, kicking everything around him. Zoro, not one to be shown up, jumped back and drew his swords, chopping whoever was in his path.

Usopp was….cowering behind a box, pissing himself and occasionally taking shots from cover.

Luffy spun around and ran towards the fat man, who was still eating their ship like nothing was wrong.

"Get off my ship!" captain stretch shouted, not hearing the apparent warning from one of the soldiers.

"You're stupid to take on the great Wapol!" but Luffy didn't care as he leaned forward and punched. Then the man munched down on Luffy and had the guy's entire body in his mouth.

"Luffy!" Dante stopped and racked the lever action again,

Dante then aimed for the man's head before noticing that Luffy's arms were still stretched, like a slingshot that has been pulled back too far. Then the arms came forward and slammed into the fat man, Wapol and sent him flying so far away like a shooting star, spitting Luffy out onto the deck.

Everyone looked at the direction the fat man flew and couldn't help but be impressed.

"Damn…" Zoro said, admiring the distance the guy went.

The jester guy on Wapol's ship, who was standing next to a guy with an afro and apparently afros for boxing gloves were completely surprised.

"You'll pay for that! We'll make you pay for doing that to our lord!" the jester shouted as Dante aimed his rifle and fired. He thought he hit the guy in the head, but there was only a hole in the man's stupid looking hat. "Ah! Retreat! We must save Wapol now, before he drowns!"

Dante continued to unload his rifle at the fleeing troops and at the huge ship, mostly doing pot shots and shots in anger. When his rifle ran out, he drew his revolver and continued firing until the ship began to actually retreat.

Vivi had since run out to see what had been going on. She had a good look at Wapol before Luffy sent him flying. All the action happened so fast, she had no idea how powerful this group of pirates was.

"What was all that?" she asked

Dante turned to Vivi,

"You've missed out on the fun, princess. This _pirate_ named Wapol tried to rob us."

Vivi had seen the face of the fat man before Luffy pretty much sent him to the moon. She tried to think as the man's face was familiar.

"I swear I've seen that big guy before…but I don't remember where."

Zoro sat back down to sleep after it was all over. He was hoping for a challenge, but didn't even broke a sweat.

"Well whoever that guy was, he's out at sea now and if that's devil fruit powers, he'll be at the bottom of the ocean in no time."

Elsewhere, Smoker was hot on the trail of the Straw Hat pirates. He kept playing back the intercepted message in his quarters,

"Straw Hats….Mr. 0…Princess Vivi…" He repeats the key names from the message. "Looks like this is getting bigger than just petty pirates. Just who the hell are these guys?"

He started to remember the past of himself and Dante back when they we younger. They both wore Marine cadet uniforms and were obviously part of some elite corps. He then shook his head to forget the memory.

"What the hell is your plan?" He had ship set sail to Alabasta since he knows Vivi is the princess of that kingdom. "A kingdom in the middle of a civil war…an organization that uses numbers for code names…how does a band of wannabe pirates and a Marine intelligence officer connect to all this? Is he that high up that I can't get any info on or has he gone rogue?"

Before he could finish his thought, his second called for him, but not after dropping her sword. Smoker shook his head at the sight.

"Quit playing with your swords!"

Back on the Going Merry, the crew had been working hard to find the Drum Kingdom. After another days worth of traveling, Sanji spotted the snowy island.

"Land ho!" the cook shouted as he came back down.

Everyone rushed outside to see the snowy island getting closer to them. The crew then turned to look at Luffy. The guy was still wearing his warm clothes.

"Hey Luffy, aren't you cold? It's like 10 below." Usopp said

Luffy stared at their sniper and paused a bit…then he started shivered and sneeze.

"Damn, it's cold." Stretchy said

"Seriously Luffy, you have problems," Zoro commented as they found a river to sail into.

As they made their way in deeper into the island, Dante slowly reached for his revolver as he looked around. It was like eyes were on them, coming from everywhere. They were not alone.

"Guys…we're being watched."

Zoro readied his sword.

"Where?"

"I don't know…they are gone now." Dante relaxed a bit.

Usopp didn't like the sound of that as he somehow managed to cower into his own coat, his nose barely sticking out.

"Why can't we just land on the island of relaxation and good times."

The crew found a dock and weigh anchor. They packed for their trip inland.

"From the crow's nest, there was a town not too far from here." Zoro said

"Zoro, you stay here and guard the ship. Karoo should stay here as well. Cold weather isn't for ducks, even big ones."

The large bird quack at Dante a bit, and cuddled up under a thick blanket. Dante passed Sanji his sword.

"Use this so you can carry Nami on your back, Sanji."

The cook brought in some extra jackets to put over Nami and started carrying her out.

"Alright, let's go. I'll be on point." He checked his rifle as they landed but the moment they hit solid snowy ground, they were face to face with a tall man with this shovel looking weapon.

"Hold it right there," The man said, "State your business. Here."

Dante slung his rifle and held his hand up. If the guy wanted to talk, he would have and he had home field advantage anyway.

"We are peacefully sailors just on an adventure on the Grand Line. Our friend is very sick and we need to find a doctor. Do you know any?"

The man stepped forward. He had a squared jaw and crew cut hair, very big like an ox. His weapons like a big spade. One swing looked like it could chop a man in half.

"Don't joke. I saw your ship's flag. You guys are pirates. Unless you people find it funny to be target practice of Marines."

"Pay no attention to the flag. We mean you no harm. We don't even need supplies or anything. Just a doctor for our friend. We'll pay you any price. Our friend is really sick."

"Well, it's true no pirate we've bumped into ever say they come in peace, but you'll forgive me for being suspicious. This place was attacked by pirates not too long ago."

Sanji stepped up with Nami on his back to show the big guy.

"Looks see, our friend here is very sick."

The man looked closely at Nami. He can see she wasn't faking it.

"Alright then, stick with me but don't try anything."

"You've a name, good sir?" Dante asked

"It's better manners for the guests to state their name first."

"Ok, I'm Luffy, the captain. This is Dante, Usopp, Sanji, Vivi, and our sick friend is Nami."

"I'm Dalton, the captain of the island security." When he stepped closer, he stared at Vivi for a bit. "You look familiar, have we met?"

Vivi cover her face a bit more with her hood.

"I guess I just have one of those faces."

Dante smiled a bit, turning to the princess. Even out in a remote island like this, someone recognizes her.

"No matter. Come to the town as long as you are not hostile but I have some bad news. The only doctor we know of is a witch."

Usopp stopped dead in his tracks.

"Did you say w-w-w-w-witch?"

"Well that's just what they call her, but other than her nickname, she seems to be a very good doctor, though the rates she charges is criminal."

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked

"Well first, she comes down off the mountain whenever she feels, walks around town for patients, and once she heals them, she takes whatever she wants. Last time, she charged for 25% of a store's income. A year's income."

Luffy scratched his head a bit,

"What is she, a pirate?"

"Aside from her overpricing, are her skills real or not?" Sanji asked

"I don't understand. Isn't this the Drum Kingdom?" Dante asked, "This place is renowned for their doctors and advanced medicine."

Dalton stopped a bit, before walking.

"It used to be, but no more. Now we are a country with a name…Our king Wapol had run off, leaving us to fend for ourselves."

It was Vivi's turn to be shocked. She walked up closer to the big guy.

"He abandoned his own kingdom?!"

"Yeah, once he saw how great pirate life can be, he took the entire army with him and sailed off on his fantasy. Along with all the doctors."

Vivi was mad as hell. From a noble family herself in charge of a much larger kingdom, the idea of a monarch abandoning his or her duty to rule is the worse crime.

"Running off for some fantasy, abandoning his people to the cold, leaving them defenseless. That's disgusting. I knew I remember that man. I was young years ago at the meeting with my father. He had the look of a tyrant."

Dalton turned to Vivi.

"What meeting? Who are you?"

Dante stepped up to interrupt.

"At any rate, we heard from Wapol himself that he is trying to come back here…that was before our captain punched him so hard, he was flying at ballistic speed."

Dalton raised his eyebrow a bit higher when he heard that not only they survived an encounter with Wapol and his soldiers, but beat them?

_**Who are these people? Traveling the Grand Line without a doctor. They are either very crazy or very stupid.**_

The group made it to the village to rest with no troubles aside from bumping into some friendly bears that got Usopp making yellow snow. Nami was place on a bed while the others discuss what to do next. Dante asked first.

"So Dalton, you said that this Doctor Kureha is the only doctor left on the island?"

"Yes. She lives up in that castle on top of the tallest mountain. It used to be for the royal family. When Wapol ran off, no one was left there."

"I guess she doesn't take visitors often. How does she get down off the mountain? Is there some kind of lift system?"

"It's only a rumor, but we've heard that she rides a sled of some sort with a reindeer pulling it."

Dante started to imagine an old witch dressed up like Santa, acting all demonic.

The group kept on talking about plans. They debate about using a sled to carry Nami but the routes up the mountain are very dangerous especially with the snow coming down. Luffy had volunteered to carry her up with Sanji. Dante reached at the snow as if trying to manipulate it but he stopped because the idea was reminding him of someone else. Suddenly he actually felt very cold, despite being able to control his water temperature.

Vivi noticed Dante feeling cold.

"Are you ok?"

"It's fine, the cold ice just reminded me of someone."

"Friend?"

"More of a…mentor. That man's ice cold in more than one way. He'll fit in perfectly under these conditions."

It was Luffy's turn to carry Nami as Sanji passed Dante's sword to the captain.

"Enough talking. Luffy and I will go find the doctor. She's on top of that mountain, right?" Sanji buttoned up his coat more. "We have no time to waste."

Dalton protested on the two going off like that, but he had little choice in the matter.

"I wouldn't try not to stop them." Dante commented.

"Shouldn't more than just those two go? I told them about the rabbits."

"The more people with them, the slower they will be. One of them carries Nami and the other will protect both. Don't underestimate how fast they can run."

"That's right! Nami will be safe with me protecting her." Sanji boasted.

Dalton sighed, seeing he can't convince these pirates.

"Just follow the route I pointed out. Watch yourself out there. The wild life will eat you alive if you aren't careful."

"Alright you two, double time it!"

Luffy turned to Dante, a bit confused.

"You want us to take twice as long?" Sanji smacked him on the back of the head with his foot.

"He meant twice as fast, as in get there fast!" Sanji flicked his cigarette away and took off, followed by Luffy.

Dalton had a stern look of concern for the pirates as they jumped without looking into the danger. Dante walked back inside.

"No point in worrying about them. They'll be fine." The former Marine said with confidence. "If anything, Luffy values the lives of his crew more than treasures and adventure."

While talking to Dalton, he looked outside to see that Vivi and Usopp were still looking on at the direction where the others had run off in. Dante grabbed a larger fur coat and took it outside for Vivi. She clung to it, thanking him.

"They'll be fine. It's best to stay inside." He turned to Usopp, who was making large snow creations to pass the time. He had attracted the town's children, who were really impressed with his work.

"Alright kids! Beware, and fear the mighty Snowzilla! Raw!" The children laughed at Usopp's fun.

Vivi nodded as she smiled a bit. Dalton had made some hot chocolate for the two to drink. Dante passed it off to Usopp, who needed it more than him, since the long nosed sniper was constantly burying himself in snow.

"I have the power of the snow snow fruit!" He started throwing snow at the children.

"At least he's keeping busy." Vivi said

"It's hard just standing around, but if we all went with them, we would have slowed them down." Dante didn't want to say that Vivi and Usopp would have slowed them down. He wanted to go, but he didn't want to leave Vivi alone.

As the hours passed, Vivi had gotten a bit tired and went back inside Dalton's house. Usopp was still paying with the children outside. She sat down next to Dante, looking out the window at Usopp.

"He's really good with children." Vivi commented.

"He told me back at his island, he used to be in charge of a group of _**pirates**_ there. As in, he was the oldest child on the whole island and played well with them. He tries to hide it, but he's pretty good with little kids. I think he'll make a great dad one day or an eccentric uncle."

"That's the thing. I've heard little about everyone's family or really anything at all."

"They haven't told me much, aside from the fact that they are all orphans. Raised most of their lives without their birth parents or in some case, their entire lives without even knowing who their mother or father is. Luffy has a grandfather, but he doesn't talk about him at all. Usopp's dad had left his family when he was little and is now part of Shanks' pirates. I don't know anything about Sanji's family other than the cooks he grew up with and Zoro…I have no idea who his parents are or if he has any family left. All I know is that he was brought up in some sword dojo. He's very sentimental about one of his swords, the one with the white hilt. Don't know why, he doesn't tell any of us."

Vivi slumped closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"And you?"

This gave him pause. Deep in his mind, he had a mix of anger, sadness and other feelings that makes a man brood. He pushed it aside.

"My mother…I don't want to talk about. My father…I haven't seen him in years. He doesn't even know I exist, nor would he care if he found out."

Vivi looked up at him, curious about what he just said,

"You mean your mother and father are…separated?"

"You can say that…my father's job is more important to him than anything else. What my mother saw in him, I haven't the faintest clue."

"Suddenly I feel a little left out in this group." By now, Vivi was snuggling close to him for warmth. "I've lived my entire life knowing my father. My mother died when I was little. It was hard for my father, raising me alone but I was always surrounded by people who care about me. I have a good father who loves me very much. I can't even imagine living an entire life time not knowing my parent."

"Well, even though we are without our birth parents for most of our lives. Every one of us had someone who either raised us, mentored, gave us a home, or be apart of our lives. They ARE our family. They taught us how to survive, how to fight, how to live our lives."

Usopp outside was remembering his village, the people there, his "pirate crew", his mom, dad, and of course Kaya.

Zoro remembered the dojo, his sensei and Kuina as he trains in the cold water.

Sanji thought about the cooks of the restaurant ship and the head chef Zeff. He didn't even care about the snow around him.

In Luffy's mind, his thoughts went to 2 other kids about age. A kid with a top hat, a guy that was older than him with flames coming out of his hands and behind them was this big bearded old guy. The beatings from the old guy kept him warm while running hard through the rough snow.

Nami, struggling to stay warm, thought of her "mom", "Bellemere and sister, Nojiko.

These thoughts kept them all strong and determined to continue on the journey.

Vivi listened quietly, but then looked up at him when his turn came.

"What about you?"

"What?"

"Who raised you? You mentioned a mentor of sort."

"Oh that guy? He's just a teacher. Taught me how to fight and survive out on the ocean. I learned everything from the man. Other than that, you know where I came from in my childhood. When I was no longer a child, I was raised by the Marines. My…family if you want to call them, had protested me even leaving them. They even tried to stop me. I ran away, changed my name and appearance and have been on my own ever since I was 12."

"You left your family at 12? What about your mom?"

He tried to avoid the question but it was hard to hide the fact of his mother.

"She…was a factor on why I left. Maybe one day I'll tell you about it. Being in the Marines, I was taught the basics. That we are the right arm of the government. We bring peace and order to the world…then I found out how far from the truth that is. Like you, it disgusts me to hear about people who call themselves Marines commit terrible crimes on the very people they have sworn to protect. They break laws, tempted by money and power. Some have even become warlords over the areas they are assigned to. It's my job to clean up the mess of the world's largest military force. The World Government has exceeded its reach."

"Must be hard, doing what you do"

"No more hard than what you do."

After a little bit, Dante decided to bring up their position. Vivi had pretty much melted onto Dante. You would need a crowbar to pry her off him.

"Nice to see you've relaxed finally. A moment ago, you were worried stiff." Vivi noticed how close she has gotten to Dante, practically clinging to his body. It was now impossible to hide her blush.

"I was…it is very cold."

"Then it's best for you to not let go." He pulled her back to him suddenly, wrapping the blanket around them. "Don't be shy, princess."

She smiled a bit as she held him, sharing the warmth.

"Just Vivi, ok?"

"Hm?"

"Call me Vivi alright? Enough with the whole princess thing. I know you're doing it to tease me. Stop it." She nudged him a bit.

He smiled a bit, and held her close.

"As you wish, Vivi"

Outside the door, Dalton had left the two alone inside, but had heard the princess remark.

_**She's exactly who I thought she is.**_

The day dragged on as the two fell asleep under the sheets, but only to be woken up by Usopp.

"Guys, wake up!" the man shouted. Dante woke up first, with Vivi still groggy. "No time to be falling asleep you two."

"What is it?" the princess asked while rubbing her eyes.

"One of Dalton's men just told us that Wapol has landed on the island! They're on the far side, close to where we docked the Merry!"

"He's here the take back his country. I guess he's done playing pirate." Dalton said.

"That…that bastard!" Vivi spouted, "He abandons his kingdom to live out a fantasy and expects to come home with parades and fanfare? We have to stop him."

"That's what the townspeople have in mind, but I don't want them throwing their lives away. The militia I've created has never faced the harden soldiers of Drum Kingdom. They were never meant to fight an army."

"Why would the army actually follow Wapol like that, abandoning their home? Don't any of them have family?"

"Most of our military was actually wiped out when a band of pirates came, not too long ago. There were just five of them and their leader was a man called Blackbeard. Just 5 pirates and they took out almost the entire army. They took what they wanted and left a broken kingdom in their wake...in flames. Instead of calling the Marines for support, Wapol took the remnants of the army, those that are only fanatically loyal to him, and took off on the country's only warship. Now that he's back with what's left of the military, I don't know if we can take them on. I'll have to kill Wapol. It's the only way to stop him."

Dante stepped in front of Dalton before he walked out the door. He can see the big man wants to confront his former king alone, like it's his responsibility to protect the island. Valiant, but stupid.

"Just taking out the king isn't going to win the game. You can't think like that. You forget about his little fanatic army. They're going to be pissed when their boss is killed. You think they are going to just drop their guns and give up? No, they are going to take it out on the town and the people. They'll turn into bandits."

"So what should I do?"

"These people are ready to fight with you, die if they have to for their country. It is the responsibility of the people to ensure their country doesn't get out of hand."

"That isn't how monarchies work. The people are just going to get killed when I step out there. I don't want anyone dying as a result of my actions."

"Don't let that get to your head. They are fighting for their homes, their very lives from tyranny, from a man who has abused his power and threw away any right to rule. You don't get to make that choice for them."

One of the island guards burst into the house.

"Captain, Wapol is heading right here."

Dante turned to Usopp.

"Usopp, gather the women and children and get them into shelter."

"Right."

"Dalton, gather all the men with guns and have them start setting up a line of defense. We need to turn this town into a fortress to repel them. Anyone who doesn't have a gun can help create barricades. Do they have any calvary?"

"No, but Wapol does have his personal mount and it isn't meant for war."

"Then we have the advantage. They are coming to us. We mount a good defense, it'll repel them away. We can force them to surrender."

"There's another group of militia from the nearby town. They will take a little while to get here."

"We can use them to flank Wapol's troops. Send a messenger to tell them the plan once we know where Wapol will be attacking from."

After issuing the commands, the townspeople got to work, piling up snow to make hard cover to protect them from gun fire and block the main road into town. Alright, Dante can tell that Wapol's forces are getting closer. Dalton was a bit surprised at how well Dante was coordinating his people.

"Were you in the military?" he asked "You seemed to have done this before."

"Let's just say I know a thing or two about Marine tactics and leave it at that." He checked his rifle to be fully loaded, then checked a rifle the militia was using. They were pretty advanced for a small country. "Looks like your country has some good guns, not the old school stuff."

"Single shot breach loaders. Wapol might have been a tyrant, but he wanted his troops with the best that money could by. You've got something no ordinary pirate could get his hands on."

Vivi walked up to Dante, holding a rifle in her hands. Dante grabbed it gently.

"You need to stay back and watch the women and children with Usopp."

"Let me fight with you. I can help."

"Have you ever fired a gun before?" He didn't wait for her to answer the question before taking the rifle and passing it off to someone else. "Doesn't mean you aren't useful."

"You just don't want me to be up here. You're not being fair."

"I know…but at least you understand."

Vivi nodded and then kissed him on the cheek.

"Be careful."

"You too…princess," He winked when he called her that before walking off.

Usopp stepped up, his slingshot at the ready. Dante knew he can count on him with his marksmanship.

"Alright Usopp. Take one of these." Dante passed him the rifle, "It's called a rolling block rifle. You pull the tab in the back to open it, put this cartridge inside the hole, close it, make sure the hammer is set back, aim and fire."

"I'm not so sure about guns."

"Look buddy, any other time I'm fine with you, but today you have to use this. At least when your slingshot has lost its novelty."

"My slingshot can best any gun!"

"Keep thinking that when the bullets start flying and don't even think about running, you'll make us Straw Hats look bad."

His knees shaking and not because it was cold, Usopp tried his best to man up.

"Who do you think you're talking to? I am captain Usopp, the bravest warrior of the sea!"

"Then show me." Dante gave the man a pat on the shoulder and walked off.

From the beginning, Dante was already aware off Wapol's attempt to come home, but he didn't know they were that close to them. It was a matter of time. He looked around and was worried. These guys weren't soldiers, not even the island security force but hearing from Dalton about Wapol and the state of the island, he was sure the fat man wasn't expecting "his people" to fight back like this. That gives them an edge.

"What next?" Dalton asked

Dante stepped up to address the town.

"My name is Dante, Special Forces. Who among you can shoot a rifle and who among that can hunt?"

Dalton stepped up.

"Listen to this man. He's here to help us."

A small handful of the townspeople stepped up and among those, a couple of those.

"Ok, you few will be my marksmen. Everyone else will be the infantry. On my command, the marksmen will pick their targets and shoot, then the infantry will shoot after them. I'm going to be dividing you into squads, teams."

After organizing the town folk into units, he stepped back up.

"Ok, those with only a passing experience can instruct those who do not know how to shoot. They will be reloading the weapons of those who actually can hit something. You will start doing this after you have fired your first shot. Everyone, remember to stay in concealment. We shoot from cover. I do not ever want to see any one of you stepping out from cover to take a shot. And remember. These are not people coming at you. They are your enemies. They will not hesitate to shoot you down for defying their king, a king that wants to take everything you got. Get to your positions."

"Nice speech."

"I like to get straight to the point."

"Do you think we can win?"

"I hate to boast, but with me and my friends here…yeah, you can win."

The hours passed as the people finished their barricades and hid behind them for cover. It was tense and the increasingly cold weather wasn't helping. Dante then stepped forward and he melted the snow around him and drew a line in the snow in front of them. He then went back into cover. Dalton was amazed at his power.

"You ate a devil fruit?"

"Yeah, but don't tell no one." He smiled.

A guard rushed towards them.

"They're here." The man whispered to them.

Dante knelt behind cover and aimed his rifle. Dalton knelt next to him.

At first they saw only a couple, then more started to walk out of the woods. It looks like Wapol has over a hundred men. Then he's also got those two special looking guys. When enough of Wapol's soldiers popped up, Dante formed a ball of water and tossed it at them. It made a large splash and that got their attention.

"That's far enough!" Dante shouted. "You men are trespassing! Leave now!"

A soldier stepped forward.

"How dare you stand against the army of your king!? Make way! King Wapol has returned home. Show your respects!"

Dante showed the man something by grabbing a large ball of snow and hurling it into the man's face to shut him up. The force was so great; the soldier was knocked back and on his ass.

"You have been warned. Cross that line and you will be treated as a hostile. None of us wants a bad day."

Far away at the base of the mountain, Luffy looked up. The mountain was daunting and steep. Several vertical miles up. Luffy had Sanji, unconscious and being dragged. He had taken his coat and used it to secure Nami on his back as he began climbing the long way up.

"Damn it's cold," Luffy said, his voice muffled "Alright guys, hang on."

Luffy began the climb, one small step at a time, inch by inch. All he has to worry about is the cold.

"It's cold…cold…very cold. You know Sanji; I am going to need a big meal when we get back. I want extra meat this time."

Luffy tried to make conversation with his unconscious friends, though neither was talking back. It didn't matter, it kept him warm and focused.

"I wonder how the others are holding up."

Zoro had since left the Merry with Karoo watching the ship alone. The swordsman was caught down the strong current of the river he was swimming in and washed up a few miles down. Getting up, he realized that he didn't bring his swords when he jumped into the water and was also without a shirt or shoes. Seeing how this is going to suck, he began to make his way back to the ship, not realizing that he was going the wrong way and towards the town that was ready for war.

Dante saw Dalton grab a fist full of snow and put it in his mouth. That way, his breath would not be seen. He clinched his weapon, which also had snow on the blade to prevent the metal from shining in the light. He wanted to jump right at these soldiers that were once his men. A voice in the back of his head didn't want to face off against men just following orders of their king, but Dante's mentality was starting to rub off on him.

"This is gonna suck." Dante said, "Wished we have a full platoon of Marines here. We can take these guys to town."

"I have to ask, if I haven't already. Why are you helping us?"

"Don't know really. Well aside from the fact that my friends are out there risking their lives. It's not my thing to run away when there are those in need. Yeah, I know. That's not the hallmark of a pirate, but that's just me."

Dalton looked around at his people. Some were nervous, shaking while trying to hold their rifles steady, while others were down right scared. Dante is reminded on how novel Usopp's fear of everything is but compared to these guys; Usopp was really the bravest man here. Dante knows he can count on him to do his job.

"Do you think they are ready?"

"It's gonna suck but as a Marine, we like things that suck." He checked his rifle again. Then they can see Wapol move up to the front. He was riding this huge beast off burden, sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Get out of my way!" Wapol shouted, "Anybody who gets in the way will pay the price. And don't think I'll let my doctors heal you. Well maybe if you guys beg hard enough. Ha! Move up, soldiers!"

Wapol's men started to move from the tree line. Dante slowly crawled up. He signaled the marksmen to get ready as they picked their targets. He will take the first shot that tells the others to fire.

When the first Wapol soldier cross the line, Dante took a deep breath, let out half and pulled the trigger. The next sound, heard around the island, is a bang.


	7. Chapter 6

**Red Snow**

**Dr. Chopper M.D.**

She was awake and to state the very obvious, she's really alive. Feeling cooler now, Nami got up from the bed, moving the bag of ice away. Her eyes were adjusting since she just awoke. The room looked blurred and then she can see again. Outside looked just as cloudy as she vaguely remembered when they had arrived on the island. She can't tell what time of the day it is.

_**How long was I out? **_

_**Where am I?**_

Looking around, she noticed the stone walls and floor. This place was really old. Looking out the window, she can see the battlements, turrets and torn flags, confirming to her that she was indeed in the castle. That means Luffy was successful in carrying her all the way up the mountain with Sanji. She didn't know that Sanji had been injured during the trip but thinking on how much care and risks of their life to get her help made her blush. She felt really grateful to her crew as she hugged herself.

_**Thanks guys **_

Just then, she heard the sound of stone grinding on stone from her right and turned to see a funny looking creature working on a table. She was going to call him a raccoon but the antlers and his nose gave away that he was more of a deer. She was trying to figure out this thing. It was standing on hind legs like a person and grasping onto a tool with what looked like fingers if they were hooves. So he's a humanoid deer? Nami decided to talk to it. He looks friendly enough.

"Hello there, little guy. What are you making?" She said, thinking how cute the little guy was grinding medicine like a person. The creature was startle and jumped around the corner to hide. "I'm…sorry? Did I spook you?"

Nami blinked a couple more times at the little man-deer with the funny looking hat. The little guy was not doing a good job at hiding, though. Instead of hiding his body and peering around the corner, he did the reverse. Nami tried not to chuckle because it was just adorable.

"Um, I think you have the whole hiding thing backwards." The little guy switched and was at the correct position, now peering around the corner instead of the other way around. "That's better, but there's no point. I've already seen you."

The little deer opened its mouth and to Nami's surprise, words came out.

"Up yours, human!" the thing shouted back with venom in his words. Though he kept himself behind the corner though.

Nami was at a lost for words as she tapped her cheek a bit to wake herself up a bit more, and then looked at the little creature again. Did she imagine that the thing was talking? The little guy was still standing there, still looking at her intently. Maybe she was still delirious from the fever. Yeah, that must be it. Animals can't talk.

"Oh and can you tell me how you are feeling? Your fever has gone down and I was about to give you your next dose. You're lucky that I was able to figure out what you were sick with. You could have died."

"Oh my god, you can talk!"

"Of course I can talk! What did you expect me to say? This?" He opened his mouth again and made noises like an actual deer.

"Keep it down, Chopper!" the sound of an older woman said as she walked into the room with half a bottle of wine in her hand, chugging it down like it was water. At first Nami was a little intimidated by this stranger. Could this be the witch Dalton was talking about? She did have this wicked witch look about her. All she needed to do was paint her face green and wear all black. Hell, there was a broom next to the door. It was her eyes though. Despite the rest of her face, she has very soft eyes that reassure you.

The lady touched Nami's head with one finger and just with that, she can tell Nami was better. Obviously, she is a doctor.

"Hmmm…Fever's gone down…a few more days of rest and you'll be fine."

"But…who are you?"

"I'm a doctor. Dr. Kureha, but you can call me Doctorine."

"So that means I'm-"

"Yeah up on the top of this mountain and no, you're not 100%, yet. That'll take a couple more days."

"What about the two that brought me?"

"Those tough guys? They're asleep in the next room. The guy with the curls got a concussion and back injury but that's mild compared to the guy with the straw hat. He's got sever frost bite on his hands and feet. Obviously from walking around in subzero weather without gloves or proper shoes. It's a miracle that I didn't have to amputate."

Nami was relieved that Luffy and Sanji are both fine. Hearing about their injuries made her even more grateful of the risks they took for her. She still felt dizzy though, so the doctor was right. She laid back a bit. She has no sense of time. How much of it has passed. The passed few days was a complete blur to her.

"Doctor, thank you for the help, but I can't stay here for too long. I need to go as soon as I am able to. Just send mail me the bill so I can be off."

The old lady turned to Nami with a curious smile on her. She walks towards the young lady and sat down.

"Oh, so do you have 100 years medical background in all sorts of illness and other nasty things in the world that tries to kill you? Want to check yourself out, girl?" She reached for Nami's neck and then suddenly a scalpel popped in her hand and the blade was on Nami's throat. "One very gentle cut and you'll be dead within seconds. See, there are 2 ways a patient leaves my care. Either I clear them, or they embrace the cold. Your call."

Nami stared back at the doctor. Her eyes just as piercing as the old lady.

"It would have been a waste of resources to heal me and then kill me just like that. Personally, I would like to still look pretty when I go."

There was pause between the two women and the doctor chuckled a bit,

"You've got spirit little girl. I like that. Reminds me of me." She retracted her blade and got up. "But I am serious. You'll need another day at least to be completely cured. Then several more days of rest to physically be fit to go. You've got no doctors on your ship so you might need to stay put."

"I'd be lying if I didn't want to sleep for a whole week and not give a shit, but my friend needs help. Her country is in danger."

"Civil War in Alabasta, I know."

Nami looked up at the doctor.

"How did you know?"

"Well, Alabasta is the nearest major island from here. We get enough of their traffic to know. Also you've been calling out to your friends and one very familiar name I know. You kept crying out Vivi and how you'll save her kingdom. The princess of Alabasta sailing with a bunch of pirates. I don't know if I should be surprised at that fact or the fact that you bunch of pirates are risking life and limb to help her."

"Well…there is a reward. A big fat one." She was still holding out the one billion she asked for returning the princess.

"Nice try, girly. I've heard how concern that tone of voice was in your sleep. Now I'm sure the money is good if you succeed. Help the princess in a war, get riches. You party wouldn't happen to have a smuggler with swagger, a preachy holy warrior and a giant talking man creature do you?"

"Well, our cook thinks he's got swagger. We do have a couple holier than thou warriors though we don't have a giant talking man creature. We do however have a couple talking man children, including our captain."

"I take it Straw Hat over there is the captain. Oh yes, speaking of talking man creature. Chopper, come here. Don't be shy."

The little fellow came around the corner and walked up to Nami.

"I heard your name from the 2 in the next room. You're Nami, right?" Chopper was a bit timid still.

"Well Nami, this is Tony Chopper. You're wondering why he can talk, and that's because he ate a devil fruit that allows him to take on human traits. Though sometimes I think he's inherited human stupidity as well."

Nami smiled a bit and offered a hand to Chopper.

"Nice to meet you Chopper."

"Chopper here was the one who healed you. He figured out what you are sick with and made all the medicine. I watched of course. Can't leave the guy alone and poison you."

"Oh? Well, thank you Dr. Chopper." Nami's hand was hanging, but after a bit, Chopper reached with his and shook it.

"It was my pleasure." He blushed a bit when Nami called him a doctor. This was the first time a patient had called him that.

Elsewhere, snow had completely covered the town where the fighting took place. An avalanche suddenly came storming down the mountain and swept up everything in its path. It was all too quiet with no signs of life left. Then the snow became disturbed as something was coming out.

Dante popped out from the snow he was buried under. His fist punched through the thick ice and snow. After he got out, he managed to pull his rifle out of the snow. If he hadn't had it slung to him, it would have been lost in the avalanche. He didn't know where it came from or how it happened, but it stopped the fighting and buried the entire town. It was a mess, both the town and the battle that happened.

Hours ago, Dante was ready to start the revolution, but it wasn't him that fired first. A shaky man with a gun was too nervous to hold back and fired first. He missed his target by a mile but it spooked the rest of the town to fire. Most missed except for a few that hit their marks. Dante tried to tell them to hold their fire, but it was too late. A couple soldiers went down, with a couple crawled away, bleeding to death in the cold. The return fire was a nightmare. Wapol's men unloaded everything they got at them with consistent and precise fire. These men were well trained and fired in massive volleys. The first return fire felt like a huge shotgun hitting the town. Any townspeople that didn't duck down were killed instantly. The sound alone scared the town back into cover. Everything Dante taught them had crumbled into chaos and fear. There was nothing he could do but fight on.

"Come on! Shoot back!" Dante shouted but most of the townspeople were hiding, trying not to get shot. Only a handful returned fire. It was better than nothing and Dante didn't want to blame the others for being afraid.

Dante tried to rally the men by firing at Wapol's men rapidly. When he reloaded, he can tell Wapol's men had already noticed that he was the only rifleman in the group and all concentrated their fire on him. He wasn't worried because if he got hit, the bullets didn't even slow him down because of his powers. Every bullet that hit him was stopped and just came back out, falling harmlessly on the snowy ground.

What did worry him were the tons of snow coming down the mountain. Dante noticed right away that it was coming from the direction where Sanji and Luffy went in but Dante had more immediate things to worry about than his shipmates like the tons of snow coming at him at great speeds.

"Oh shit." Dante turned to yell at Dalton but it was too late as the town was in too much disorder, some running away, some ducking cover. There was no where for him to run as he gripped his rifle tightly and sighed. "This is so gonna hurt."

He made the snow come up around him and melt as he formed a bubbled to protect himself. He looked onward as the snow rushed at him, consuming the town.

Back in the present, Dante walked around, seeing as the entire town had been buried with only the tops of houses sticking out. He tried to remember which building had Vivi and Usopp in it and rushed towards it. His mind was frantic. He's never been this worried about someone before. Using the stock of his gun like a shovel, he started digging but seeing how slow that idea was, he turned pushed his hands into the snow and it started to melt as he pulled the water away. Soon, he was able to clear enough of the house to reach the door to kick it open.

"Vivi! Usopp!"

Sliding down the slope he made, he can tell everyone was alright. Vivi rushed to him to reassure him with an embrace.

"We're ok. I'm ok." She said, almost taken by surprised at Dante's concern for her.

"Thank god." He said

"Ahem, I'm fine too, buddy." Usopp said, interrupting their moment. The children were all wrapped around him as if he was a protective deity.

Realizing he was cling to Vivi, he lets her go.

"Oh…right. Good to see you're ok too," Dante turned to look at Usopp but his face was all swollen up, "Um…Usopp?"

"Yes it's me!"

Apparently he had freaked out when they were all buried under the snow and Vivi had to snap him out of it. And by snapping out, she beat the ever loving crap out of him. If it weren't for his voice and the nose, Dante wouldn't have guessed under all that swelling was the team sniper.

"Is it safe outside?" Usopp was the first to ask of course.

"I'm not sure. It seems ok." Then he shush everyone in the room

Dante moved towards the door when heard movement coming towards them. He drew his revolver since he was in very tight space. He took aim at the opened door, pushing Vivi behind him. With one hand on his gun, he took aim, while holding Vivi's hand with his other. Usopp finally did something and aimed his slingshot.

Then there was a sliding noise as someone was coming down the path Dante had dug up. His finger on the trigger, ready to shoot whoever was coming down unannounced. He cocked the hammer back.

The man came down the path and he was wearing a Wapol Soldier's coat. Dante was prepared to pull the trigger when he looked at the man's head and it was Zoro.

"Zoro!" Dante sighed a bit as he flicked a switch on the side of his gun and the hammer fell back down. He then placed his revolver away, "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

"No kidding. Do I look like someone you should be pointing a gun at?"

"Your coat." Vivi pointed out.

"I assume you're cold unless you've turned coat on us for a nice warm coat."

"What, this thing? I picked it up off a dead man. There are a lot of bodies outside, half buried in the snow. What the hell happened here? There was a lot of gun shots and then there's a lot of snow over where I assume a town used to be." Zoro wanted to continue talking but gun shots outside attracted everyone. "Speak of the devil."

"Vivi, stay here." He was about to move out, but realized he had a death grip on her hand. She looked up at him and smiled as he turned and let go of her hand. "Usopp, watch them. Zoro, let's bring it."

When the pair climbed back out, he can see a small group of Wapol's soldiers that had dug themselves out, were firing on the townsfolk that were helping survivors. Those who could fight back were doing their best to shoot, but as earlier proved, they were no soldiers. One man was already dead.

Dante still had his revolver drawn and opened fire on the soldiers, picking off 2. A couple others shifted their fire and attacked Dante, who backed off as Zoro rushed ahead, grabbing swords that were discarded and attacked, cutting down the remaining soldiers.

"All clear!" Dante said as he checked his rifle, and reloaded it.

"Hope so," Zoro kept the swords in case they need to fight again. "At least I got some kind of work out."

Dante turned to his swordsman friend and shook his head,

"Is there no time when you are not working out?"

"Somebody, help us!" someone shouted as they were pulling someone really big out of the snow.

Dante realizes that they were digging Dalton out of the snow.

"Shit, Zoro help me out!"

"Who's this guy?"

"I'll explain later."

Dante used his water powers to remove the snow away from Dalton as Zoro pulled the big guy out. He was still in his Ox form, startling the swordsman.

"Holy shit! What the hell is this guy?"

"Don't worry. He ate a devil fruit that gave him the traits of an ox." Dante helped the guy up but felt grim when he saw the 3 thick arrows in the man's chest. Turning to Zoro, "Hey, you know anything about removing arrows?"

"We do." Someone spoke up, causing Zoro to draw sword and aim rifle. They stood down when they realized that there were a couple dozen men in doctor coats standing in front of them.

The castle on top of the tallest mountain was a lone structure. From the outside, it is hard to tell if anyone actually lives there. Most of the rooms still had stuff in them, since Wapol apparently had left everything as it was before running away. A good chunk of the castle was actually covered in snow but inside, not just outside. Someone had left the main door open, which allowed the cold air and even snow inside. The large hall beyond the front door was just like outside, frozen with silence more than just snow.

The cold silence was interrupted by screaming from a high pitched voice. Chopper, the little reindeer devil fruit eater, was being chased by Sanji and Luffy on the sole purpose that he is a deer and deer equal food. The trio ended their chase when they made full circle and crashed into Nami's room, piling up on each other. Chopper squirmed under the two, trying to get away while they struggled to grab him. The noise started to get on Nami's nerve and she couldn't stand it anymore. She got up from bed and cracked her knuckles.

"Would you two STOP IT!" She shouted, shutting them up the way she usually does…with her fists.

The two's head were smacked into each other.

Sanji looked up at Nami, jumping at her with joy as he tried to contain himself.

"It's a miracle, Nami. You're alright. Don't worry; I'll have your dinner right away. Deer's really good for you!"

"He's NOT my dinner! He's my doctor!" Nami shouted as she smacked Sanji into the wall. At least her strength has returned.

"Doc…doctor?" Sanji slide down the wall, feeling like paste.

Seeing Nami is alright, Luffy also got up.

"Yahoo, Nami is alright!" captain stretch shouted as he got a huge smack in the head as well "Ow."

"Keep it down. There's a sick person here. Me" Nami said "Now stop trying to eat my doctor."

Sanji bounced back up, dusting himself off.

"You must have tapped me a bit harder than normal. Did I hear you say this deer is your doctor?"

Suddenly the little guy grew as large as a bear and pounded both Sanji and Luffy into the floor. His devil fruit power was a zoan type, and since it's a human fruit, he can assume a humanoid form but still retain animalistic traits. Dante knows of the Zoan type and it gives one great physical strength.

"I am not your food!"

Everyone except the doctor was surprised by that. Sanji and Nami were both surprised that the guy can talk.

"No kidding, this guy can talk," Sanji said "Care to explain?"

"Well that's a long story." But the moment Kureha started to talk; Luffy had began to chase Chopper again. The old-I mean, more "mature" doctor sighed as she started again, "So back a few years ago, Chopper was actually like a normal reindeer, except for the whole blue nose thing. Kinda cute but his herd didn't think so…"

As Kureha began to explain about Chopper's past, other things were happening down the mountain. Dante stared at the 20 doctors who were actually offering their services. Dalton had told him about how all the doctors were either exiled or killed when Wapol made a new rule that only 20 doctors are allowed in the entire country and they directly serve him.

"So these guys are the 20 MD? Dalton's wounds are serious. You really think you can help? I can barely feel a pulse."

The leader of the 20 stepped up to talk.

"Wapol had more serious injuries than these. We can get the man fixed up in no time."

"And why help? You guys work for Wapol."

The rest of the town agreed with the idea that the doctors are just as bad.

"Please listen!" The head doctor shouted, "Yes, we were forced to work for Wapol against our wills and that is no excuse. We are a shame to doctors who help heal people regardless of circumstances but that man over there is someone this island cannot lose. A crazy doctor of sorts taught us to be better. We realized that back then this island had lost enough good people. It'll be more on our conscious if Dalton dies as well."

The doctor hauled Dalton into one of the uncovered houses and started working on the big man. The hours passed as everyone waited outside, thinking on what to do next.

"We should go up that mountain to find out how they are doing." Vivi said, "They have yet to contact us at all. Who knows, they might have even been hurt by that avalanche."

"How are they going to contact us anyway? We don't use snails and it isn't like they're going to toss a rock with a note on it down that mountain." Zoro sighed a bit, snuggling his second coat that he picked up.

"I wouldn't put it passed that they most likely caused that avalanche." Dante joked, not knowing how much on the truth he was.

"Besides, I think you worry too much." Usopp said, leaning on a fence, "You're holding the fate of an entire country on your shoulders. Have a little faith in our crew. Nami's got Sanji and Luffy looking out for her. You gotta believe in them."

Vivi took a deep breath, even though it was cold. After settling down, she smiled at the long nosed man.

"You're full of great wisdom, Usopp." By that time, Zoro was already poking at the man's face.

"Nah, he's full of shit. He just doesn't want to go up that damn mountain."

"Fuck that bullshit, there could be all sorts of crazy monsters up there! The last island had lions and tigers and this one had bears! What next?!"

Dante planted his hand on his face as he sighed a bit,

"Oh my…so what's the plan there?"

Just then, Dalton stormed out of the house using his weapon like a cane. His wounds were closed and obviously the man's alive but the doctors were trying to pull him back inside. The big man wouldn't have any of that and despite his wounds about to burst open, he soldiered on. The Marine walked up to the big man.

"And where do you think you're going, big man?" Dante stood in the man's way. Dalton had a good foot and a half and a ton over Dante, but the Marine stood there nonetheless.

"I can't let Wapol retake the castle and reform his kingdom. Everything we've built would be gone."

The thought was actually more funny than threatening. Wapol has only a handful of retainers left, his army was completely gone. How does he plan to reform his kingdom anyway? At most he'd be an annoyance to the island. Without the people to serve him willingly, there is no kingdom.

"Dalton, you're wounded. You can barely stand, let alone fight a deposed king. That fat ass can't form proper sentences let alone a kingdom." Walton shoved Dante out of the way. Usopp then got in the man's way, then he turned around and offered his back.

"I'll carry you." He said, gathering all his courage to look like a badass only to be kicked aside by Zoro.

"You can't carry yourself, let alone this guy." The swordsman lifted Dalton onto a shoulder and began walking, "Just point the way.

"Thanks for stealing my thunder, man."

Dante and Vivi followed behind but then one of the townspeople called them back.

"There's actually a faster way to get up there. You can take the rope way. It was recently reconnected. It'll take you up straight to the top."

Dante rolled his eyes before grabbing Dalton a bit,

"Why didn't you say there was an easier way up the mountain? Our friends climbed up that damn thing for nothing."

"Because as the man said, it was only recently reconnected. I had no idea someone fixed it."

"How convenient to the plot."

"Didn't know we had a plot." Usopp commented as they made their way in the direction of the rope.

Back up top, Luffy had just about sent Wapol into the inner walls of the castle. The man had ate his way up the building and turned himself into what he called the lean, mean, fighting machine…who was promptly punched into the wall. Luffy never holds back on anyone, especially enemies. The force of the impact shook the castle.

Dusting himself off, Luffy bumped into Nami, who was not happy at all. She was angry more and more as she stared at the coat Luffy was wearing. HER coat.

"So captain…you mind telling me what my expensive brand name coat that I had so graciously loaned you is now all cut up and covered in dirt?" There was a suddenly feeling of death coming from the girl. Luffy held his breath as he felt terrified. "Do you have any idea how much that coat cost? A lot and that's with haggling!"

"It's not my fault! The man shot a freaking cannon at me!"

"Well to be honest, I should have known better that you wouldn't have brought it back in one piece anyway. I guess I'll have to charge you extra for bringing it back in this condition. I think….300%, plus the fee to patch it back up, the cleaning…I think that'll come up to 120,000."

"Aw come on! If you were going to charge me, I wouldn't have taken it!"

"I take payment plans. We can negotiate about taking from the crew's wages later."

"EXCUSE ME! I'm still here!" Wapol stomped the floor to get their attention like an 8 year old. Luffy only looked at him with a passing curiosity, wondering why he's even here.

"Oh, so you are." Luffy wasn't even paying attention as the guy mouthed off about some kind of super secret special awesome weapon behind some door. "What were you saying?"

"Now with my key, I can open the door and kill all of you! First I need to see which gun is the best one to finish you off" He reached into his pocket and grabbed nothing. Then he reached into another pocket and nothing was in that either.

When Wapol couldn't find his key, he felt a bit embarrassed that after everything he spouted about was for nothing. The not fat man then ran up the spiral stairs to the top, but was followed closely by Luffy. Nami watched them go while twirling a key in her hand.

"An armory? I was hoping was to a treasure vault." She tossed it away. "I don't need guns, I need gold!"

When Luffy reached the top of the tower, Wapol shoved a huge multi barrel cannon at his face.

"Tremble to the might of my ultimate weapon!" Wapol yanked the lever to fire but after a loud rumble and a shake all that came out was poof of smoke.

"Isn't there supposed to be a boom?" Luffy asked,

"Ummm, wait! Give it a second!" Wapol jerk the lever constantly until he realized that nothing was coming out, "This usually works!"

"Happens to a lot of people, my big brother always tells me some men can't jerk the handle that well."

"That's not funny!" Wapol smacks the cannon aside and then heard chirp sounds coming from unusable weapon he just tossed aside.

Just then, birds came out of the barrel, surprising Wapol even more. Luffy tried to play with the birds forgetting about the not so fat man.

"Nice, snow birds." Wapol stood there, stunned at the development.

The rope was actually a cart that took them up the mountain.

"This a really nice machine but it's a bit slow going up." Dante commented as he turned to the front. "Hey, a little faster please."

Usopp and another guy were peddling and that was the actual power that takes this whole thing up.

"Why don't you get down here and start peddling."

"Sorry my long nosed buddy. We need to keep our strengths up for the fight ahead." Dante then pats the man on the back really hard, "Now put your back into it. Faster! Faster!"

Usopp started peddling as fast as he can. Dalton was sitting in the back with the other townspeople, still gravely wounded. Some of the doctors had tagged along to keep him from falling over dead. Dalton kept playing it over and over in his head, all the things Wapol had said to him. That man was like a child given absolute power and must be stopped.

Wapol and Luffy continued to fight it out on top of the castle. It climaxed into a huge explosion that destroyed the tower. Everyone in miles could hear the explosion.

Dante looked up and was thinking to himself. Even if they succeeded in taking down Wapol, this might actually draw attention of the World. Even if Drum Kingdom is small and uninteresting to anyone on the Grand Line, the World Government doesn't like rebellion of any sort. They would surely try to intervene.

"What should I do?" Dante said out loud to himself,

"What?" Vivi asked

"Nothing. Just talking to myself."

After more drama, the group made it to the top of the mountain. Then everyone looked up when they heard a loud scream and saw something flew from the top and was flying so far, so fast, they couldn't even tell if the guy had landed anywhere on the island.

"What was that?" Dalton asked

"The end, that's what it is…and we didn't even have to pull a punch." Dante said. Then they heard a shout coming from up high. Usopp and Zoro looked up, trying to keep the sun out of their eyes as Luffy got closer. Captain stretch had launched himself from the tower and straight at them. Dante took a step to the left so that his two fellow shipmates were flatten by their captain.

"Nice of you to drop by Luffy." Dante said, "So I take it that the big fat thing that went flying was Wapol."

"Yeah, I sent him flapping like a bird. Oh yeah guys, I met a new friend. He's this talking reindeer." Zoro and Usopp weren't really in the mood to listen since they were under Luffy who had squashed them into the snow.

"A reindeer?" Dalton turned to Chopper, who was poorly hiding behind a tree when everyone looked at him. "It's you."

He remembered years ago when he faced off against Chopper who wanted blood for the death of his mentor. Dante was a bit confused but most likely it'll be all explained to them later on.

Usopp got up after Luffy had landed on him.

"Damn it Luffy. I would have mopped the floor with that fat guy."

"Did you have to jump into us like that?" Zoro shook off the concussion he was going to have after Luffy had smacked himself into them,

"Sorry guys, I couldn't see you. I thought it was more baddies. Especially Zoro. He looks like one of them."

"I told you to ditch the coat." Dante poked Zoro a bit.

"And I told you that I am wearing nothing under this coat."

"Not my problem if you went skinny dipping with nothing but you skivvies in the subzero river!"

Dalton was still barely alive but managed to walk to the front of the castle. This place used to be a shining beacon for the island. He had served 2 kings here, one good and the other one not so good. It taught him that any one person with absolute power can save or destroy the whole country. The people behind him wants him to lead them, but not as a king but someone better. All he wanted to do was help save his home and leave it behind. That last part was no longer an option as the doctors told him when they patched him up.

Dante helped the big man up when he nearly crumbled to the ground, taking him inside to his former room. Everything the way it was years ago. Ever since Wapol had abandoned the country, Dalton had not once step back into the castle. He wished it was burnt to the ground, but now as the people of the island explored the wonders of it. The giant structure may serve the people now as something better.

After the doctors left the room, Dante sat down next to Dalton, who was told to stay in bed and not go off into suicidal charges of battle.

"It's finally over." The ox man said to Dante, "Wapol is truly gone."

"For now. We don't even know where Luffy knocked him off to. This island needs to reestablish itself to the World. Otherwise the World will look at this as a successful rebellion and you know how they don't like rebellion of any kind."

"And what do you suggest we do, pirate?"

"That's really up to you. The people picked you to lead them. You've got a responsibility."

As Dante thought about the next step, everything else was dying down as the townspeople started looking around the castle, talking about what to do with it. Kureha didn't want them to take it for themselves but was convinced to loan it to them since she can't clean up the entire castle. The day turned into night as the Straw Hats settled down for the night. It had been a long couple of days for all of them.

Walking down the mostly deserted castle, Vivi imagined what this place was like before Wapol took over. From what she's heard from the townspeople, this used to be a great place. The island was home to tons of medicinal plants that the doctors used to treat the sick and injured. That's what made this island so famous. Hopefully now that Wapol is out of the way, it can return to its former glory.

"This place is almost as big as home." She said to herself, but then heard voices around the corner. Curious, seeing that most of the town had gathered on the other side of the castle, she wondered who could be over here.

"So you can be here by the end of tomorrow?" the voice said, "Make sure they are guys we can trust."

Vivi couldn't hear what the voice was talking about as she walked closer. She heard a different voice coming from the room.

"The cold is a problem, so anyone who specializes in this weather is a plus. This place is having a total government change over. We need to make it so that the World is fine with it. It has to go smoothly."

By the time Vivi walked into the empty room, she noticed Dante standing by the window, leaning against it. He had stopped talking when he noticed Vivi was in the room. Looking around, Dante was the only person there.

"Dante, what's going on?"

The Marine turned to the princess. His smile returned to the way it was before.

"I was talking to one of the townspeople about the state of the island. Just giving them pointers on what to do next. They've just overthrew their king. They need to establish a new government."

"Oh…I see."

"What did you hear?"

"Nothing really. I'm just a bit tired."

"Then you should rest."

"Luffy said we are leaving right away. After he gets that funny little reindeer along."

"The doctor right? It'll be nice to finally get a doctor on the ship. Really any doctor will do."

"You seemed to be taking the whole talking reindeer pretty well."

"I've traveled a lot. I've seen a lot of weird things. I bet the crew's going to be filled with even stranger people."

Dante stood in front of Vivi as he had left a snail by the window. Dante knew this and swore to himself on his carelessness. He wasn't expecting Vivi to show up behind him. He couldn't make a reach for it until Vivi leaves. Earlier he told her he didn't have a Snail phone. This could have brought in more questions from her. He decided to take a different approach.

"The moon's out. It's pretty over the snow." He said, which was stupid because now she turns towards the window a bit. All she needed to do was look down at his Snail.

"Yes it is." But then Dante made a move on her, brushing aside her hair

"You're prettier." He said as he reached down behind her and grabbed the snail, pocketing it away. At ease now, he tried to move on, but Vivi was the one who made the next move and gave him a kiss. "What was that for?"

"You were taking too long to get to the point. I told you that I don't like being teased." She said with a smile. Dante was about to return the kiss when they both heard Luffy shouting in the distant for them all to leave.

The two joins the rest of the crew as they said their farewells to the island's inhabitants. Chopper was apparently being scared away by Kureha, who had sent her apprentice off with sharp objects thrown at him. Making their way back to the Going Merry, the pirate crew prepared to set off with their new crewmember.

But first, there was Karoo to address. The big duck was almost frozen stiff. Vivi was beyond horrified while Sanji was thinking what a giant roast crispy duck taste like after it was flash frozen.

"Karoo! What happened to you?!" she tried to cover her duck up but the damage was done as it quacked a few times. Hugging it doesn't seem to help either. "Say something!"

Zoro scratched his head a bit, trying to explain since he was the only one guarding the ship with the duck.

"The bird must of fell into the river like an idiot. Ducks aren't meant for the cold."

Chopper listened to the bird's quacks and turned to Zoro. You don't need to translate the angry quacks from the bird directly at Zoro.

"Karoo said he was trying to save you. He thought you were going to drown in the cold water, so it jumped in. When it couldn't find you, he came back and was freezing."

Hearing that truth, Vivi smacked Zoro upside the head. Nami was more amazed at the fact that Chopper translated for Karoo.

"So you can talk to other animals?"

"Well I am still a reindeer. The devil fruit just gave me human traits." Karoo said something else to Chopper and he translated, "Karoo also said something about your mother and you should go to hell"

Luffy was extremely impressed

"That's awesome that you can talk to animals. We can have you translate for us!"

"You do know he's a doctor right?" Nami said, "That is the main reason why you asked him to be our crew right?"

"Well…I just thought he's cool. He's a doctor, too?"

"I was thinking he'd be perfect for emergency food, like this duck here." Sanji joked, though he might not be. Nami gave both of them a smack anyway.

"With a doctor on board, we can resume on course for Alabasta." Vivi said, "Just try not to push yourself so much, Nami."

Nami is still weak but at least she isn't sick with death. Everything was back to status quo as they set off. From atop the mountain, Dalton and Kureha watched on.

"I used to want an adventure like those kids."

"Well you've got bigger responsibilities now. Also 3 arrows to the chest can do a lot on your ability to adventure,"

The next day, Dalton had returned to his home, which was mostly unburied and rested there. The doctors told him to not do any heavy lifting and best to stay in doors. Three arrows to the chest usually kill you but since Dalton is such a tough guy, he just needed to walk it off.

The Ox man had remembered where he had first encountered Vivi. It was many years ago. Wapol had recently come to power. He had yet to become the horrible man he is later, but he's still a walking bully. Taking out his frustrations on the nearest thing, Wapol had bumped into a young Vivi on purpose to incite a reaction, but the young princess stood up and politely apologized to Wapol as if it was her fault for being knocked over. Wapol walked away, dissatisfied that he didn't get the reaction he wanted. Dalton was impressed at the young princess for her courage and wisdom, knowing how wars have been started for lesser offenses. He followed her to apologize for his king's action. She must have been barely 8 at the time.

When she found a place to hide, Vivi started crying. It really hurt when Wapol bumped her like that. She didn't even want to show Igaram her tears. Then she heard a voice from above her.

"Why are you crying?" the sound of a boy asked. The young Vivi looked up to see a kid looking at her. He was perched on top of the pillar. "Did that fat guy really hurt you?"

He held a pair of sunglasses in his hands, then clipped them to his shirt as he prepared to step off.

The boy jumped and landed next to the young princess. He reached out with his hand and touched the bump on her forehead. There was a small glow and Vivi stopped crying. She reached up and the bump was gone, not even a bruise.

"You're pretty strong for a girl." The boy said. The comment peeved Vivi a bit as she shook her fist at him.

"Hey, girls can be just as strong as boys. I'm from Alabasta. I'm…I'm tough as the rocks of my country. That didn't hurt one bit."

The boy smiled a bit as he shook his head, then pats her head.

"No, I mean you are strong here." He points to her chest. "My mom told me what really matter is right there. You're a real noble. Not like a lot of these phonies I've been watching."

Vivi wiped her tears,

"Noble?"

"I'm Dante. What's your name, princess?"

"Vivi."

Young Dante offers his hand to Vivi to help her get up. She firmly took it and stood up.

"Nice to meet you, Vivi" Dante smiled, "When you feel down, smile. Some big guy taught me to always smile and laugh if you can whenever you feel down. When you do that, nothing in this world can get you down."

"That guy thinks he's better than everyone. Makes me sad to think we're the same kind of elites."

"We're not the elite because we really are better than everybody. We should be the people everyone looks up to. Like I said, noble."

Dalton was watching the two from around the corner. Little did he know he would encounter the both of them years later.

The man smiled as he remembered the past and what those two little children grew up to be.

"The world is in good hands if people like them are leading it." He then wondered about Dante and who the boy is. There were on Mariejois, the seat off the World Government's power. He's obviously not a commoner but there is something about the way young Dante was dressed seemed very familiar to him. You ignore the way the kid was talking and focus on just his decorative white clothes, especially the way those sunglasses he wears. Then, it suddenly dawned on him as he looked out at the sea, "Dear God! He can't be a- !"

Before he could finish his thought, his day seemed to be interrupted by a guard shouting to him. The man had burst into his house, out of breath.

"Dalton!"

"What is it?"

"It's-it's..."

"What is it?"

The two traveled to the coast to see a battleship now anchored ashore. The flag had Marines on it.

"The Marines? Too little too late don't you think?" the big man said.

The Marines started pouring from boats and walked ashore, taking supplies meant for a long haul. A lot of them seemed like engineers. They seemed to be here to help them rebuild the island. Working pretty fast, they've already established a beachhead and a port.

"What do you think they are doing here?" an island guard asked Dalton

"They're here to stay, that's what."

A man walked towards him, wearing long military trench coat. He had a worn out top hat and this crack smile on him.

"You the man in charge here?" the guy asked "Dalton, right?"

Dalton was a bit surprised that the man knows his name.

"I…" Dalton thought long and hard about it. The people supported him even though he would be a constant reminder of the old regime. The island loved him. He remembered Dante's last words of encouragement. "Yes. I'm Dalton, the leader of Drum Island"

"Good, that's what my buddy told me."

"Buddy?"

"No need to mention his name. You know who I am talking about."

"And who are you, Marine?"

"I'm not actually a Marine, nor do I have an official rank." The man took off his hat to be polite, "but you can call me Sabo. We're here to help you build a better country."

Sabo looked up at the drum shaped mountains and smiled a bit,

_**Sorry brothers. I'm going to be a little busy here. I'll catch up to you guys later.**_

Out at sea, Vivi smiled at Dante, since she now remembers how she first met him but her memory was incomplete. Dante remembers what he said to her later that day.

__"Vivi, there's something I really want to do when I grow up."

He looked out at the sea from where they were. He turned to Vivi, with the sunset on his back. She stared into his eyes as they glean from the light. For a second, Vivi felt a little scared.

"I want to remake the world."


End file.
